Organic Beer anyone?

[Julieharpo]

Hi making beer for 2 years, organic, but having trouble finding grain and other supplies. Anyone else out there going for organic have any tips and/or places to purchase whole organic grain and organic hops varieties? THANKS!

 

[Yooper]

Where are you located? I know @Pappers_ has been using organic ingredients.

 

[Pappers_]

@Yooper and @Julieharpo Organic malt is not too hard to find - Briess, for example, makes a range of organic malts. Briess Organic Malts

Hops are a different issue. I seldom use organic hops these days, because they are more difficult to find and get a hold of. There was a supplier in California, Seven Bridges, which only sold organic grains and hops, but I stopped using them years ago for a variety of reasons that are probably specific to me. I think they closed.

 

[MrPowers]

Ya, I used to brew with mostly organic ingredients as well. Seven Bridges Coop was the go-to place for ingredients before they closed. I gave up on organic after that because ingredients were too hard to find.

Briess Organic malt is pretty readily available, but I don't know of anywhere selling organic hops at this point.

 

[DromJohn]

Seven Bridges is closed.
I'm a partial something brewer that greatly prefers LME over DME.
Northern Brewer is the only supplier that I am aware that sells home brewer quantities of organic LME. They also have a decent number of organic grains, probably all Briess. If you are an all-grain or a DME Brewer then there are some other vendors.
If you buy New Zealand hop varieties, then they are all organic. They might not be labelled as "organic," but New Zealand's standards for all agricultural products are stricter than Oregon's organic labelling standards which are stricter than Federal U.S. standards to qualify as organic.
I believe all dry yeast is organic. Liquid yeast has malt extract which is rarely organic. Look for Omega.

 

[day_trippr]

We have an organic grain grower and malt house in west-central Massachusetts. Their two row base malt was great on aroma and chew but the kernels required a tighter mill gap.

I'll likely buy again just to help keep them around. It's good to have options...

Cheers!

 

[sibelman]

I've been using Great Western organic two-row pale malt for several years with excellent results. Clean and plump. Available almost always at my wonderful LHBS, FH Steinbart in Portland.

I generally get organic Briess crystal malt and roasted barley from Northern Brewer. Haven't found their other offerings on line. Seven Bridges used to be my main source

Cheers.