Often us craft beer drinkers buy local brews. Many times this is because we want to support our own beer scene, as illustrated by this article by the Beer Advocate. Other times its because we want to drink the freshest draught available. Although I agree with these reasons without question, there is more benefit to buying local than just sustaining your local breweries.

Environmentally speaking, local craft beers are the best thing you can drink. The reasons for this are actually rather simple. Craft brewers tend to buy local ingredients to use in the making of their beers. They also sell more beer locally than they export to other areas. The combination of these two key points means that the carbon footprint of a locally bought craft beer is smaller than that of a craft beer shipped in from another area.

This is not a particularly new concept. For a number of years there has been a buying local movement in the food world. Many consider this an extension of the organic movement, taking things just one step further in order to help environmental sustainability. For further information regarding the buying local food movement check out this excerpt from the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, it goes into great detail about the reasons people buy local.

Now before you think I am trying to encourage you to only buy local, please let me state this is not the case. I love beer, and more importantly I love trying new beer. If I were to drink only local brews I would not be able to enjoy beer on the level I do now as I would be tasting the same things over and over again. That said most of us craft beer drinkers also keep a fridge full of brews for visitors, bbq’s, and trips to the beach. These beers are not meant for analysis and dissection but pure social enjoyment. When those social times come up I encourage you to drink locally, its not just good for the scene, but good for everyone.

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