{"id":2450317,"date":"2012-10-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/uncategorized\/yes-you-can-drink-more-environmentally-responsible-beer\/"},"modified":"2022-02-24T13:20:32","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T20:20:32","slug":"yes-you-can-drink-more-environmentally-responsible-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/food\/yes-you-can-drink-more-environmentally-responsible-beer\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes You Can (Drink More Environmentally Responsible Beer)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/figure><\/em><\/span>Oskar Blues' cannery row. Photo: Ryan Dearth<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Will McGough, Wake and Wander<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Growing
\nup outside of Philadelphia, it was never much of a decision. There
\nwere no mountains to climb. We lived the city life and my upbringing was
\nsimple: Good beer came in a bottle, crap came in a can. <\/p>\n

Flash forward a few
\nyears and I'm pacing the beer aisle in a store near the Front Range of the Rockies, my
\nfingers still greasy from prepping my bike chain. Now immersed in an arena of outdoor
\nactivity, my priorities have changed\u2014biking and bottles and backpacks certainly
\ndon\u2019t mix. Ten years ago, this would have meant inappropriately pairing a light canned
\nbeer with a crisp, fall ride through the foliage. Today, I\u2019m happy to say, we
\nfinally have options. Lots of them.<\/p>\n

Bottles
\nhave long ruled the craft brew scene in the United States. But that's
\nchanging, largely thanks to Dale Katechis, founder of Longmont, Colorado-based
\nbrewery Oskar Blues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I won\u2019t call out anyone in particular, but they were all pointing and laughing at
\nthe new kid in town,” says Katechis, recollecting the reaction he received when
\nhe began canning his hoppy pale ale back in 2002. “They thought it was a joke,
\nyet today they\u2019re all canning beer…. Talk about funny.”<\/p>\n

That hilariously hoppy brew is Dale\u2019s Pale Ale<\/em>, a drink that has been
\nwidely praised by beer experts and easily recognized in stores across the United States
\nin its red, white, and blue can. It\u2019s true: Oskar Blues was indeed the pioneer
\nof the U.S. craft beer canning movement. As it approaches its 10-year
\n\u201cCANniversary\u201d in November, Osker Blues is now one of more than 220 American breweries
\nthat have followed suit, according to Craftcans.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When
\nit comes to gear, from backpacks to tents to bikes to shoes, weight matters. Whether
\nheading into the backcountry or on a leisurely day hike, no one wants to lug an
\nounce more than is necessary. The same goes for adult beverage choices: cans
\nare lighter, smaller, and easier to pack out than bottles. So cheers for the
\ntrend in canned craft beer.<\/p>\n

But
\nwe're not the only winners. Cans also offer significant environmental benefits.\n<\/p>\n

Replacing glass with aluminum cuts shipping costs by a
\nthird, according to Oskar Blues' research. Oskar
\nBlues fits 100 cases of canned beer on a single pallet, where it could only
\nput 60 cases of bottled beer. The weight of each loaded pallet is the same, but
\nthe significantly higher volume on a pallet of cans means transportation costs
\nare lower, as are carbon emissions generated throughout the beer's supply
\nchain.<\/p>\n

“Glass
\nis heavier,” says Liz Shoch, senior manager of GreenBlue<\/a>, a non-profit that equips businesses
\nwith the science and resources to make products more sustainable. “When
\nyou think about that in terms of transporting the materials, it takes a lot
\nmore fuel to ship bottles, and thus increases the amount of greenhouse gases
\nthat result during the shipping process.”<\/p>\n

Once
\nthe beer is packaged and shipped, the theoretical baton representing
\nenvironmental responsibility is passed on to the consumer. Although the
\nrecyclability of the can and bottle both hover near 100 percent, statistics
\ncollected by the EPA<\/a> show that aluminum is more likely to be recycled in the
\nAmerican household. In a 2010 study, beer and soda cans were found to be
\nrecycled at a rate of 49.6 percent, while glass containers were recycled 33.4
\npercent of the time. In the 2009 study<\/a>, the
\nrates were 50.7 percent for aluminum and 31.1 percent for glass.<\/p>\n

Minal
\nMistry, also a senior manager at GreenBlue, believes the extra costs associated
\nwith the bottle will, at some point, lead the industry to begin taking the can
\nmore seriously. “At the end of the day it\u2019s a business,” he said, “And the
\nlighter materials are going to eventually win out as transportation costs
\ncontinue to increase.”<\/p>\n

As
\nfor the taste debate, Katechis thinks it\u2019s only a matter of time before both
\nthe brewer and beer drinker see that the case for the bottle is now more
\nbrittle than ever. The old-school argument that the can alters the taste of the
\nbeer is one of his biggest gripes\u2014something he has
\nhad to work very hard to overcome<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Beer
\nis brewed and stored in metal its entire life and it never sees sunlight until
\nthe brewer decides to put it in a bottle,” says Katechis. “Think of the can as
\na mini-keg of beer. In the 10 years since we started canning, we've yet to
\nhear one argument for the bottle other than tradition.”<\/p>\n

When
\nyou start looking at the facts, it becomes obvious that both the environment
\nand the industry would benefit greatly from a correction of public perception.
\nI wonder: Given all the other environmental movements happening across America,
\nwill consumers begin to take a stand on these issues alone? Will the fact that
\nthe can is more portable start to make sense to people?<\/p>\n

At
\nthe summit of a trail in the foothills of the Rockies, I leaned
\nagainst my mountain bike and reached for a beer in my backpack. Wiping the dirt
\nfrom my bloody elbow and cracking open the still intact brew, tasting the rich,
\ndeep flavors of the pale ale, I officially declared the can as king.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oskar Blues' cannery row. Photo: Ryan Dearth By Will McGough, Wake and Wander Growing up outside of Philadelphia, it was never much of a decision. There were no mountains to climb. We lived the city life and my upbringing was simple: Good beer came in a bottle, crap came in a can. Flash forward a … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"uuid":"6089755160efda0245b7f8cf178b79c2","footnotes":""},"categories":[2574],"tags":[2634,2601],"byline":[],"ad_cat":[],"legacy-category":[],"class_list":["post-2450317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","tag-hiking-and-backpacking","tag-science"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Yes You Can (Drink More Environmentally Responsible Beer)","url":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/food\/yes-you-can-drink-more-environmentally-responsible-beer\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/food\/yes-you-can-drink-more-environmentally-responsible-beer\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"Food","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"sperkins-pom"}],"creator":["sperkins-pom"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Online","logo":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/favicon-194x194-1.png"},"keywords":["hiking and backpacking","science"],"dateCreated":"2012-10-17T00:00:00Z","datePublished":"2012-10-17T00:00:00Z","dateModified":"2022-02-24T20:20:32Z"},"rendered":"