Wildlife and Habitat Conservation News: Tropics in decline - WWF 2010 Living Planet report

Wildlife and Habitat Conservation News: Tropics in decline - WWF 2010 Living Planet report

Taking it in the Can

New Jersey's Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company churned out the world's first beer can in 1935, stocking select shelves in Richmond, Va., as a market test. The experiment took off and American drinkers haven't looked back since, nowadays choosing cans over bottles for the majority of the 22 gallons of beer they each drink per year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Canned brewskies may have only hit shelves in 1935, but the drink's history goes back much further — at least 6,000 years, in fact, to ancient Iraq.

Though it is impossible to tell just how many important decisions in world history were lubricated by a pint or two, the potent potable has played a role in at least a few milestone events, from the plagues of medieval Europe to the founding of the United States.

Who drank the first fermented wheat?

Beer is nearly as old as civilization itself, historians believe, as the accidental fermentation of wheat or barley — which produces a rudimentary beer — almost certainly occurred soon after the advent of crop agriculture (the question becoming then who was the first to volunteer to drink a murky pool of wheat water?).

The first concrete archaeological evidence of the first beer comes from Iraq, where ancient Sumerians built the first agriculture-based cities approximately 6,000 years ago. A stone seal discovered and dated to that era actually details the beer-making process in a poem dedicated to Ninkasi, the Sumerian goddess of brewing.

Two millennia later, Babylonians living in the same area had perfected at least 20 different brews. Brewing was a highly regarded profession and almost the exclusive domain of the society's women, as females were also responsible for turning grain into bread.

Beer was enormously popular with the masses in all early civilizations, historians believe, since grain was readily available and the fermentation process relatively easy. It was also viewed as an important source of nutrition and often rationed as payment; the laborers that built the Great Pyramids in Cairo, for example, were paid partly in beer.

Egyptians didn't look down upon the drink, however. Pots of beer also accompanied pharaohs into the afterlife, along with other food, gold and priceless offerings placed in their tombs.

Medieval monks make money

During the Middle Ages, European monks began to make and drink their own stock during periods of fast as a way to avoid malnutrition.

The nutritional properties of beer remained important through the medieval period, when plagues made water sources questionable. Having gone through a cooking and boiling process, beer was considered a trusted alternative, offering some cherished calories to boot.

Though many households did their own brewing, monastic beers were generally far superior and led many townspeople to visit their local monasteries for a mug of beer and a meal. The bed-and-brew houses that monks opened to accommodate pilgrims traveling through are considered the precursor to the modern hospitality industry, historians say.

In addition to helping many medieval Europeans through times of famine and sickness, beer may have been partially responsible for populating the New World a few centuries later.

The pilgrims sailing from England to America aboard the Mayflower in 1620 originally intended to land at Virginia, but arrived badly off course in Cape Cod instead. Realizing their mistake, they debated continuing on to their original destination, but ruled against it due to a general lack of rations and especially beer, according to historical documents. The colony of Plymouth, where pilgrims shared beer produced from barley crops during the first Thanksgiving, was the result.

Prohibition shapes American tastes

Beer-making got a major boost during the Industrial Revolution, when steam power and artificial cooling made beers quicker to produce and easier to store. Breweries subsequently became a big business across Europe and the United States — stymied there only temporarily during the Prohibition years of 1919 to 1933.

Ironically, it was the Prohibition that ultimately shaped the American population's taste for beer. The stronger beer that was the norm before Prohibition gave way to much weaker varieties afterwards, as people had become accustomed to bootlegged brews, which were always watered down for maximum profit.

The Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company capitalized on the reintroduction of alcohol in the United States in short order, introducing their beers in cans rather than bottles in stores in 1935.

New Belgium Belgo

New Belgium Belgo

Score: Wolf Blanket (10 out of 10)

Style: Belgian Pale Ale

IBU: 70
Hops: Simcoe, Centennial, Cascade, Amarillo
Malts: Pale, C120, Honey malt
OG: 18.5
TG: 3

Why I want to take this beer to a carnival and win it a stuffed animal

What can I say? I love New Belgium. I have a Fat Tire Jersey and pint glass I purloined while working as a promotions manager for Bike Nashbar, say, back in '98? I've been to the brewery twice and wanted to die in a fire with those folks. When you cross cycling and beer, it's as special as having a magic wand that can disappear fast food joints and cut-off sweat pants. Everything about New Belgium is rad, and I want to offer the staff my last chunk of Grayson cheese and an organ-scrunching hug. Thank younze.

Now onto the beer, and my pleonastic prose on its stultifying qualities...

Straight up chuffed to bits on this one. In fact, I almost received a partial disembowelment from my perma-lady for stealing the last one. You see, I was deeper into a television show than I had been for years, a show all about meth addiction. Given the pathology streaming from the tube, I found myself rooting through the forbidden stash of killer 22's in the fridge, crying and laughing simultaneously as I embraced the icy vessel. I felt it was a benign move since it was I who was stuck at home eating rice while my baroness was schlepping brews at some October fest in Charlotte. But I was wrong.

Anyway, being the shrek in a frock from my vicarious tangle with the meth show, I poured out this blossoming beauty like I was tempting out the last bit of smack from my friend debbie's syringe (she's the bedraggled junky on TV - I bet she would enjoy some of my rice). Belgo is good from go, having almost a plantain-like taste, coupled with citrus and other beautiful things one can only find on distant planets made of happiness. A bumper crop of hops in this one, hosting my all time favorite and long-time friend, the Simcoe. Alight with joy, I found Belgo's color to be as beautiful as Debbie was beat, with a rich, copper tone that shimmered through its tattered lace. I found it to be quite a complex brew but completely session-able (until you run out of the one f$()$#ing 22 you have). Sort of a sweet bread-like finish at the end that just left you wanting more.

Since this blog is about both good beer and solid planetary stewardship, let's give a angelic-like high-five to New Belgium for it's pioneering efforts in both (Copy and Pasted straight from the their site - like a true internet pirate!):

1. Lovingly care for the planet that sustains us.
2. Honor natural resources by closing the loops between waste and input.
3. Minimize the environmental impact of shipping our beer.
4. Reduce our dependence on coal-fired electricity.
5. Protect our precious Rocky Mountain water resources.
6. Focus our efforts on conservation and efficiency.
7. Support innovative technology.
8. Model joyful environmentalism through our commitment to relationships, continuous improvement, and the camaraderie and cheer of beer

Our Alternatively Empowered efforts:

While there are many ways to be stewards of the earth, each company must determine which strengths they have to leverage. Here are some of ours:

1. Increased efficiencies in the brewing process

Our brew kettle, Steinecker's Merlin, was the second of its kind installed in the U.S. and is considered more efficient than standard brew kettles because it heats thin sheets of wort rather than the whole kettle at once.

During wort boil, the steam exits the kettle through a stack and into a heat exchanger which continually extracts heat from the steam vapor and holds it in our energy storage tank. During the next batch, the stored heat helps the wort to boil very quickly, allowing us to use very little primary energy.

2. Utilized green design throughout our building.

• Lighting. We take full advantage of the more than 360 days of sunshine in Fort Collins by using UV blocking windows, sun-tubes, and light shelves.
• HVAC. Using evaporative coolers, we can condition our 55,000 square foot packaging hall with no compressors, using much less energy.
• Materials. In our new packaging hall, the interior wood is beetle kill pine. Summit County, CO, anticipates that mountain pine beetles will kill 98% of their lodgepole pines. So, we’re giving these fallen trees another life.

3. Implemented a process for treating our wastewater:
The Clean Water Act of 1973 requires business to clean their water to domestic treatment standards before discharging, but we go above and beyond to reduce the load on our municipal plant. And we get two valuable by-products from this treatment—methane and nutrient-rich sludge.

4. On-site energy production
The methane produced by process water treatment is used to fuel a combined heat and power engine—or co-gen—which creates electricity and heat for the brewery. The co-gen allows us to offset those critical—and expensive—peak loads by creating electricity on-site from a renewable source—our process wastewater. When the co-gen is running full-time, it can supply 15% of our electrical needs.

5. Wind-powered electricity since 1999
In 1999, New Belgium became the largest private consumer of wind-power electricity at that time and the first wind-powered brewery. In 1998, when we were researching ways to lower our environmental impact, Fort Collins was launching the first city-sponsored wind program in Colorado. We made a 10-year commitment to buy all of our electricity through the program, which allowed them to install an additional turbine, in Medicine Bow, WY. Since the wind premium increased our total cost per kilowatt-hour by 57%, it impacted employee’s profit sharing pool. So, we asked employees: wind-power or not? They unanimously voted for clean energy, and the decision is a fabled moment in New Belgium history.

6. Employ a High Involvement Culture
An environment in which the full power of everyone’s hearts and minds are brought to bear on creating positive change. HIC is a 3-legged stool which stands on opening the books, employee ownership, and participative decision-making.

7. Sustainable Eventing

We try to minimize the environmental impact of our events at every turn. Our philanthropic bike festival, Tour de Fat, celebrates bicycling as a viable form of alternative transport. A solar-powered stage provides sound for the day, beer is served in compostable cups and our overall waste stream diversion rate is better than 85%

It's just awesome. I'm new at this verbosity-over-beer stuff, but I can tell you Belgo is a true drinker. And New Belgium Brewery - I want to be burned on a pyre in their parking lot when I pass.

Don't be that dude

Nick says, "I like the trees, you know? I like the way that the trees are on mountains, all the different... the way the trees are. And beer." - Christopher Walken as "Nick" in The Deer Hunter

Nick didn't mention beer, but I like trees and mountains... and beer. Honestly, I guess I'm more of the Michael type. But what about Michael (Robert Dinero) in the "Three Bullet Mow Mow" scene? So crazy, like someone stole his rudder, crazy enough to eat the devil, horns and all. But you know, sometimes it's the bar/party scene that makes us even crazier. For example, like wagering on a game of Russian Roulette? Or maybe when you are the ester-exuding cretin at the bar egging on your drunkest homey to pound another pint? Don't be that dude. Seriously. Don't.

The ethics of friendship, at some point, usually at the ripe age of 23-25, should be inverted somewhat, taking on a more adult-like, mortality-considerate role. It belies the trust and camaraderie of a crony to usher his or her mate into inebriation for selfish reasons, i.e., your own malt-induced torpor; your nettlesome, Red Bull-induced galling; your flagrant and bumptious insistence on having a "friend" shoot "Gorilla's Puke" (3/4 oz. Bacardi 15, 3/4 oz. Wild Turkey Bourbon Whiskey). My friend, you are being about as dumb as that show about New Jersey twits going out clubbing.

Wether you fancy yourself an lilly-livered imbiber with a list of ABUs in your euro shoulder bag, or a domestic-crushing man-beast sporting an Affliction shirt, or even just a mild-mannered-until-lit, run-of-the-mill "craft drinker," it serves neither the community nor the welfare of a fellow skin bag to act as the catalyst behind a night anchored to urinal, or quite possibly, a trip to the clink, or even unexpected father/motherhood. Be a friend. Sip wisely. Enjoy. Don't be that dude. Don't.

The same can be said for how we view our role in this world. Are you supporting with your cubicle cash the purveyors of quality, sustainable beer? Are you looking past the head and bouquet and considering if these breweries are leaving behind a more verdant world in which to savor earth's bounty of malt, rye, wheat, etc.?

That's the gist of this blog - to dig into the beer scene and find those agents of change and do-gooders for Gaia. And it's not like we are choking on our own patchouli vapors over here. We are savvy in the ways of sustainability and drinkability. The two are happier together than a jackass eating a cactus. Let's do this!