Yeah, I know it's the anti-beer time of the week, but this story made it to the Yahoo!'s front page. If I wait until Friday, it'll be more stale than a four-day keg:
Organic ales, lagers and pilsners are increasingly squeezing their way into retail coolers alongside non-organic beers.
While organic beer sales are still minuscule in the overall beer industry, they are rising fast. North American sales of organic beers grew from $9 million in 2003 to $19 million in 2005, according to the Organic Trade Association.
Organic beer has even drawn the attention of the nation's largest beer company, Anheuser-Busch, which is now producing two organic beers of its own. Those beers, Wild Hop lager and Stone Mill pale ale, are being sold in several test markets nationwide.
Organic beer is made the same way as any beer, but under U.S. Department of Agriculture standards at least 95 percent of its ingredients – usually barley and hops – are grown without the use of chemicals and pesticides.
Link.
