Friday, April 22, 2011

How far does your beer travel? In honor of Earth Day!

This topic has been banging around in my head for a while... Well, I should be honest, the idea was put there by one of my favorite professors. Since it's Earth Day, I thought it would be appropriate to put my spin on it and put it out here for all to see.

Your average six pack of beer weighs about 4.5 lbs in water alone, factor in the glass and you are up to around 8 lbs (BTW: perfect impromptu weights should you ever get the balls crazy idea to do aerobics). Bump it up to 24 bottles (an average weekend with friends), and the magic of math tells me we're at around 32 lbs. Depending on where your beer is "born", the environmental cost of shipping said package is enormous. And, the price of your beer's travel is often reflected in the price you pay to drink said beer.

Every time you purchase a beer, see how many "miles" you rack up according to your location and the location of the brewery. This is probably a best case scenario estimate, because its likely your beer came through a distributor, and got shipped all around whatever fine city you live in before it actually landed in your retail center. Here is a map showing the mileage and location of my favorite breweries:



Holy mackrel that's a lot of traveling for my beer to do... Especially when the majority of it is water! Those are just the beers I have consumed in the last month or so, and already I've racked up over 7000 miles. Unbelievable!

I'm not saying don't indulge in your favorite import, or enjoy a tasty IPA from the west coast. What I am saying is try those beers, and be inspired by them enough to try to replicate it in your kitchen where the water flows freely, and the grain requirements are literally a fraction of the shipping weight of your average case of beer. It's green, it's delicious, and it's a hobby you will undoubtedly get addicted to. Short of this, frequent your local breweries often! There are great people out there brewing great things... They're usually pretty cool cats, too.

Oh, and you get to free yourself from the race to the bottom in commercial brewing... It really is a win-win (win!) situation.

Best!

Liz B.

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