A Trip through the Willamette Valley: Jeff Woodard talks about beer, wine and the Carlton Winemakers Studio
We all know that the Pacific Northwest is home to some of the best beer, brewers, and breweries in the country. But it’s also known to have some of the country’s best and most well-known wine regions as well. Some of those wineries are just a short trip from Portland. While I’ve known this for quite some time, it wasn’t until last week that my wife, a friend of ours, and I decided to venture out of town, and away from our typical beer hang outs, for a day visiting Willamette Valley wineries and tasting rooms.
I like wine, but as you can tell from reading my blog, I prefer beer. And because I’m not very well versed when it comes to wine tasting, I was really hoping that we wouldn’t find ourselves in an uncomfortable situation among wine snobs or looked down on because of our inexperience. We didn’t happen upon either at the Carlton Winemakers Studio, our first and favorite stop of the day.
We were initially drawn to the Carlton Winemakers Studio because of its focus on sustainability, and because it’s a winemaking facility and tasting room shared by eight local wineries. The place is impressive. At the Studio, we met wine director Jeff Woodard, who, as we learned, is also a homebrewer and fellow beer enthusiast. I appreciate Jeff’s enthusiasm about wine, beer, and food, and wanted to share some of what I learned from him during our visit to Carlton.
The Green Line Project: Goose Island Uses New Beer to Promote Sustainability
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine in Chicago asked me if I’d heard about Goose Island’s new beer: Green Line Pale Ale. I had not yet heard anything about it, but in the following days saw it mentioned on Twitter and in online news stories several times. In reading about the new beer, it became obvious that this was more than your average beer release. The beer is actually part of an entire project called the Green Line Project, with the goal of generating awareness about, and making Goose Island a more environmentally friendly company.
According to information available on the project’s website: www.glproject.com, the Green Line Project was prompted by a study that measured the carbon footprint of a typical keg of Goose Island beer. At its broadest level, the Project centers around the idea that beer distributed in kegs produces less waste than beer packaged in single-serve containers like bottles. At the same time, limiting the distance that a keg travels in order to reach the end consumer can dramatically reduce the negative environmental impact caused by vehicle emissions, energy usage, and refrigeration.
For these reasons, Goose Island launched Green Line Pale Ale as a keg-only beer, and decided that it would only be distributed in the city of Chicago.
More on Spent Grain: Deschutes Brewery’s Focus on Sustainability
Over the last few months, I've learned that most responsible breweries have relationships with local farmers that allow them to upcycle spent grain as cattle feed. In my conversations earlier this year with Stephen Neel from Oregon Natural Meats about his relationship with Ninkasi, Stephen referenced Deschutes Brewery as another Oregon brewery that sends spent grain to local farmers. On a trip to the Portland pub shortly thereafter, I noticed that Deschutes' menu mentions the use of spent grain in the brewery's pizza dough as well. This prompted me to reach out to Deschutes to learn more about the brewery's spent grain program, and more broadly about the brewery's sustainability efforts overall.
After talking with Jason Randles, Marketing Manager at Deschutes, about sustainability, he sent me the following information about the brewery's efforts:
The “Brew Beef” Story, part 2: the Brewer’s Perspective
Last week I wrote a post about upcycling spent brewer's grain to feed cattle. The post centered on Ninkasi Brewing's partnership with Oregon Natrual Meats and included comments and information from ONM's founder and CEO Stephen Neel. Since then, I reached out to Nikos Ridge from Ninkasi Brewing to get his perspective about the upcycling efforts. I asked Nikos a few questions about the partnership to expand on the information offered by Stephen, and to provide some insights from the brewer's perspective:
Why is upcycling spent grain important for brewers/breweries to consider?
We feel that upcylcing our spent grain is a great opportunity to take something that could potentially be a negative (spent grain waste) and turn it into a positive by using it to promote a local, sustainable food network. Localization of products has benefits for the environment, for individuals through cost reductions, and for food security, by way of access to independent, community-focused suppliers.
InFARMation and Beer at Roots Brewery
On the second Tuesday of the month, Friends of Family Farmers - an organization that promotes and protects socially responsible farming in Oregon - hosts an event called InFARMation and Beer at Roots Brewery in Southeast Portland. The event brings together farmers, gardeners, and eaters to share a beer and discuss issues related to food and farming in Oregon. As a volunteer for Slow Food Portland and the Portland Farmers Market, and because I'm personally interested in food, farming, and food-related issues, I try to attend the free event whenever I can. And it doesn't hurt that Tuesday night is $2.50 pint night at Roots.
The “Brew Beef” Story: Upcycling Spent Brewer’s Grain to Feed Cattle
Last Saturday, a tweet from Ninkasi Brewing caught my eye. It simply said: Like Meat? Check it Out!, and included a link to the Partners page of the Oregon Natural Meats website. I like meat, so I checked it out. The page explains how Oregon Natural Meats is able to upcycle spent grain, as part of its Natural Brew Beef efforts (essentially saving it from becoming waste), from Ninkasi to feed livestock (check out the awesome graphic on the website). The process intrigued me, so I reached out to Stephen Neel, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Oregon Natural Meats, to learn more about it. I asked Stephen a few questions - here's what he had to say:
Background About Oregon Natural Meats Using Brewers Grain
