With the recent explosion of organics, I've seen an ecclectic variety of products ranging from organic soap to organic dog food. What really piqued my interest was the last time I jaunted out for a beer at my local pub I noticed an ever growing list of organic beer on the draft wall. This list alone had 6 beers on it from different brewers, and after quick search on the internet I realized that there's a new component to the organics craze that I'd love to investigate.

Hence “Living the Change, One Beer at a Time” was born.

I am by no means trivializing the organic movement. I feel that the littlest and easiest things we can do to make a change are sometimes the most important. Things like changing light bulbs to CFLs, unplugging unused cell phone adapters, and buying local and organic products. These are the kind of changes that we can all make. These are the kind of changes that add up to make a big difference. And my change to organic beer will make give me that warm fuzzy feeling in more ways than one.

Lime's glossary has given me a good primer on "what is organic," and I am aware of the growing controversy within organic market, and I hope to learn a lot about the individual brewers' techniques as I tackle the tasting and reviewing. As I understand it now, the problem with organic ingredients in beer and liquor are the high levels of processing involved in making alcohol. Mashing, smashing, pasteurizing, etc... This isn't exactly “natural,” but, come on, I do enjoy libations. Why not at least try for the best ingredients?

The newest organic varieties tend to be from small brewers, although I have heard rumors of brewers like Anheuser Busch and Coors starting production on organic lines. I'll do my best to get samples and informational materials and share everything I learn about their brewing process and the usage of the new organic ingredients. But for the time being, I'm willing to go out and put some nice porters on an expense report. First reviews coming soon.

God, I love my job.