My problem is this, any it is all principal here (the worst kind). Nothing against the brewers, who make great beer and I consider friends as well. I think that any reasonable person reading this entire post, or the Brewpublic post, or the event on the Beer Revolution event posting (and where ever else), would be under the impression that all the breweries were certified organic brewers, i.e., having certified organic beer in their line up. That is simply what the designation of being an organic brewer means. But, they are not all organic brewers. The information provided does a disservice to us that are. Unless they go through the process of certification, they can’t say on a label, website, etc. that they are organic. They may philospically be one thing or another, but not actually.

For example, how do we know the malts we use are organic? Do we take maltsters or barley growers at their word? No, it is certified, and we are required to have their certification on file. It means something, and anyone interested can find out exactly what it means and the standards the producers are held to. It is a consumer protection and product integrity issue. As organic brewers, we jump through a lot of hoops, extra expense and monitoring to assure that what we brew is what we say it is.

I want to applaud all the conventional breweries that made a beer with organic ingredients (I think they all use organic base malt through out all their beers, great), but can’t we celebrate that fact without diminishing the rigor, discpline and gaurentee that comes with organic certification? The beer in the glass might be as organic in origin as my own organic beers, but it doesn’t mean they are organic brewers. They are conventional brewers who made a beer with organic ingredients. It may sound like splitting hairs, but I think any organic brewer can tell you, it really isn’t. I would be totally fine with it if you had the caveat that the uncertified beers were “made with organic ingredients” or something like that. If you look at the program, that is the designation the NAOBF makes.

I don’t think you meant to do damage to what being an organic brewery means, and I think promoting organic beer and conventional breweries efforts to being more organic is fantastic, but as the information reads, we are left with the wrong impression.

It doesn’t have anything to do with feeling welcome or not to participate, because I did feel welcome. But I had other concerns that are unrelated to this. This has to do with defending the time, money and effort we put into making organic beer. If I was in the fest, I would certainly be asking the same questions. If someone said Workhorse was organic, and I saw it, I would correct them too and ask them to change it, even though it is over 90% organic, and I may have something to gain from the oversight. Being an organic brewer means something or it means nothing.

In summary: sorry for the hashness; I think you folks are smart and well intentioned, and I love reading your blogs, but I think, by mistake, you confused the pourpose you were trying to serve. I would like like you to correct the characterization if you can. I get it if you didn’t catch it before, but you now have the opportunity to set the record strait. I think that is senseable request, and yes, my spelling sux. Thanks and all the best!

You are correct in saying that not all of the breweries involved in this tap takeover are certified organic….but many of them are. And we did try to reach out to you to get you involved in this event, so I’m sorry that communication was lost. Some of the breweries participating do not have 100% organic beers, but we chose to let them come into it because the beers that they are pouring at it are made of at least 85% organic ingredients — which is 85% more than most brewers. We wanted to takeover as many of the (40+) taps as we could with beers that use organic ingredients. Yes, we did focus heavily on USDA certified breweries and heavily on the local scene, but sadly there was still some tap space and we reached out to our neighbors to the north. The moral of the story is that we are trying to celebrate organic beer.

As for questioning my respect for organic breweries, I think that is a little bit out of line since I am the one who put together this event — and I am also an organic brewer. My intentions were not evil, I was just simply trying to get my craft beer lovers to rally behind organic beer.