Drink a Microbrew, Save the Planet, Taste the Culture

I’ve said before that travelers who want to walk the talk of environmentally responsible living must also seek out sustainable food (i.e. no Chilean sea bass!) when on the road. I’m adding locally brewed beer to my list.

Making and transporting beer doesn’t produce nearly as many carbon emissions as boutique wines, which are often flown by overnight air, says Pablo Paster in his column for Treehugger. Still, Paster advises eco-imbibers to drink a local brew over that beloved German beer.

Doing so means you cut carbon emissions, support the local economy and encourage nascent renewable energy efforts among microbreweries; Paster points to both the solar-powered Anderson Valley Brewing Company in Boonville, California, and the wind-powered New Belgium brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado as proof. New Belgium even notes on its website that imbibers can “model joyful environmentalism” through “the camaraderie and cheer of beer.”

Though I’m not a copious drinker of beer, I do love a good microbrew. Boulder, Colorado, where I’ve been living this year, has my all-time favorite—the thick, creamy Isadore Java Porter at the fabulous Mountain Sun Brewery. I’ll likely forever associate its taste with the city.

And that’s really what it comes down to when we choose, say, a local craft beer in Japan over an imported Heineken. The distinctive flavors of the places we travel imbue our experiences. Though globalization has brought McDonald’s and Starbucks to nearly every corner of the earth, it hasn’t ruined the culture of local food/wine/spirits. Boulder-brewed Bhakti Chai and that Mountain Sun porter will flavor my experience here as much as wild sage tea and home-distilled tsikoudia did in Pikris, Crete, my mother’s home village.

Yes, local, sustainable food and beverages are eco-friendly. Yes, they help the local economy and promote the preservation of traditional food cultures. But they are also the very taste of the place you’re visiting.

That alone is a reason to indulge.

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