Green Mountain Organic Distillers

     The organic spirits movement seems to be getting off to a slower start than the organic wine and beer movements.  I've never seen somebody pull out a bottle of liquor made from organic materials, but the Green Mountain Distillers out of Stowe, Vermont have been creating quality organic liquors since 2002.  They're committed to organic agriculture and creating quality hand-crafted products.  They've been certified organic by Vermont Organics as well as the USDA National Organic Program.  Currently they distill gin, vodka in many flavors, as well as a delicious maple liqueur made from local Vermont syrup.

    Creating hard alcohol for American distilleries uses a whole lot of grain.  With all the subsidies, GMOs, and petroleum based fertilizers that go into producing most grains in the United States, we feel it is essential to choose organic grains and grain products such as those that Green Mountain Distillers produces. 

Green Mountain Distillers website: http://greenmountaindistillers.com/

Sustainable Wineries

     Most people don't think of Vermont as a place where wine making would flourish.  The long, harsh winters make it difficult for many varieties of grapes to grow, but many in the Northeast are finding that viticulture is possible and have created some delicious wines very recently.

    The first vineyards grown in Vermont were in 1997, so wine making in the Green Mountain State is still a fairly recent endeavor.  The grape varieties we have in Vermont are typically Minnesota hybrids and other Northern varieties that are hardy enough to make it through the tough winters.  Although Vermont might not be the next Sonoma, (we hope the climate doesn't change that fast), it is making the most out of its place on the earth and creating delicious wines, including the northern specialty, ice wines.  Ice wines are desert wines that are very strong, and also very expensive.  They are particularly well suited for Vermont because the grapes are harvested while they are still frozen, hence the term "ice wine", and then made into wine.  

    A local winery we'd like to highlight here is the Shelburne Vineyard, located just south of Burlington.  This winery has four vineyards located nearby where they grow all of their grapes.  Many of the wines are organic and they all contain local ingredients from northwestern Vermont.  We feel that  if you're a wine drinker, choosing to drink locally crafted wines is very important because most wines are being shipped out from the West Coast or from Europe.  Supporting our local wineries is good for Vermont's economy and will allow this industry to further blossom as the climate in Vermont becomes even more hospitable to new varieties of grapes.  

A link to Shelburne Vineyard's website: http://shelburnevineyard.com/

Long Trail's ECO Brew

 











      Long Trail Brewery makes some of the best brews in Vermont and has been doing so since 1989.  It makes sense that a brewery named after a legendary Vermont hiking trail would manufacture their beer in an environmentally conscious fashion.  You may have noticed the "Eco-Brew" logo, as well as the Vermont governor's certificate of environmental excellence on Long Trail's packaging.  This is the only Vermont brewery, that I know of, that has been given this award.  I was curious as to how Long Trail was reducing it's impact, and also wanted to make sure it wasn't just green washing, so I visited their ECO-Brew website.

    The first thing that impressed me was that Long Trail has a separate website entirely dedicated to ECO Brew.  They also have a microbiologist as their sustainability coordinator who was previously the sustainability coordinator at Castleton State College.  ECO is an acronym for Environmentally Conscious Operations.  They've been brewing in this fashion for the past 20 years, so they're not just trying to cash in on the recent wave of green consumerism.  There are many ways Long Trail is reducing their impacts, which include the way they brew, the businesses they partner with, and the message they send to their customers.  

    Long Trail offers their spent mash to local dairy farmers to feed their cows.  The cows absolutely love it, the dairy farmers get a much cheaper source of feed, and Long Trail using its waste to support struggling Vermont dairy farmers.  They've installed a heat recovery system (brewing takes a lot of heat), which has reduced their heating needs by 1,100 gallons of propane per month!  What I find most impressive is that Long Trail only uses 2 gallons of water for every gallon of beer produced, compared to the industry standard of 6 gallons of water per gallon of beer.  As water becomes more scarce, practices like these will become increasingly important.  They're also using Cow Power, which turns methane from cow waste into electricity.  As of April 2008, Long Trail was the largest company supporting Cow Power.  I'm very impressed by how much Long Trail is helping out local industries, such as dairy farms, while doing an excellent job of reducing their impacts on our environment.  And of course, continuing to produce delicious brews!

For more information on ECO brew visit the website at: http://www.ecobrew.net/

And for more info on Vermont's Cow Power check out http://www.cvps.com/cowpower/