Sunday, July 5, 2009

Fermenting Revolution by Christopher O'brien

10,000 years ago our nomadic ancestors settled down and began growing and harvesting grains in order to have a reliable source of food. Beer was a staple of their diet that provided carbohydrates, vitamins and a source of clean water. Human’s settled down into agricultural communities, creating societies that beer played a very large role in. Whether it was religious or social, basically any occasion called for some variety of beer drinking.

So in a sense our ancestors stopped their nomadic ways to consistently produce beer, and in turn produced simple cultures that evolved into the complex societies we now live in. Societies that have increasingly exploited the earth and its natural resources, and recently we are starting to see the effects of years of misuse in the degradation of our environment, from the oceans to the mountains. If beer is one of the causes of such a destructive force, why can’t it turn into a solution?

At least that’s the opinion of Christopher O’brien, author of Beeractivist.com and Fermenting Revolution, as well as a growing number of craft brewers from Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Great Lakes and many more. This “green” beer movement has produced breweries entirely run on wind and solar power, with revolutionary technology that ferments spent grains into ethanol, with rampant recycling, where local ingredients are used as much as possible. There aren’t many other industries that have embraced the sustainability movement as much as craft breweries.

So heres to drinking locally, thinking globally and having a great time while doing it.

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