Comments on: Blog Action Day

By: Intoxicated Zodiac Blog » green booze - the official list of eco alcohol

Intoxicated Zodiac Blog » green booze - the official list of eco alcohol — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 04:06:07 +0000

[...] thirsty for more eco-booze news? check out some posts here: KAISER PENGUIN EXPLORE THE POUR MARTINI GROOVE THE LIQUID [...]

By: Easton Ellsworth

Easton Ellsworth — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:48:15 +0000

Thanks for this tasty spin on Blog Action Day. Off to check out that report …

By: Dave Currie

Dave Currie — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:50:00 +0000

Surely the best way to ensure your drinks are eco-friendly is just to make everything yourself? For spirits it can get quite complicated (and er.. y’know, illegal), and you really need a couple of fields if you want to grow cereals to make beer, but I think making a decent carbon-neutral wine shouldn’t be too hard — plant some vines, pick the grapes, stomp on them, add yeast and barrel. (Yes, I know it’s not that simple. :) )
Of course, if we’re talking cocktail ingredients here, then you’re pretty much stuck with Sangría…

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:39:55 +0000

@Scottes: That’s good to hear! I’ve never tried Maui rums, but I’ll definitely give them a shot after reading this. Maybe they’ll be offering tours by the time I get out to visit Hawai’i next February.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 05:57:02 +0000

The in-flight magazine for Hawaiian Airlines, Hana Hou, recently had an article about the water resources of Hawaii, in particular of the island of Oahu, where a significant fraction of the fresh water was diverted in the last century to feed the sugar industry. The results of that, as well as what happened to all the water when the sugar industry left, is rather interesting.

The article can be found here:
http://www.hanahou.com/pages/Magazine.asp?Action=DrawArticle&ArticleID=604&MagazineID=38

Joe

By: Scottes

Scottes — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:43:55 +0000

Haleakala Distillers, maker of Maui Rums, is quite environmentally-conscious. Their sales and delivery vehicle run on a bio-fuel many from recycled cooking oils. Most distilleries and sugar cane growers, by the way, burn the bagasse (the sugar cane left over after sugar extraction) to power their stills and evaporation units, etc, etc. The big sugar company in Maui (I can’t remember the name) has left-over power they sell back to the grid, providing over 6 megawatts. At one point in the early 1900s the sugar companies of Maui provided ALL the electrical power for the island. The country of Brazil is big in bio-fuels and makes ethanol from sugar cane to fuel cars. It’s half the cost of gasoline and is carbon-neutral.

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:40:11 +0000

Homebrew is definitely another approach to drinking locally that I support.

@Anita: Wow, I’m sorry I missed this! We’ll have to be sure to cover that event next year. I know the St. George’s stuff is made on Alameda… not far from Forbidden Island, I hear.

By: Anita

Anita — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:23:03 +0000

Not that we drink much vodka, but Square One is organic, and uses 25% wind power in distillation:
http://www.squareonevodka.com/SingularSpirit/SS_beyondOrganic.html

On a semi-related note: We tasted 20+ locally-produced items on Friday night at the Independent Spirits Fest. Most of them were quite nice; some are well-known nationally (Junipero gin, Hangar One vodka) but most were not (St. George’s awesome single malt, Charbay’s new Pastis). It was a treat to find there are so many liquors produced within 100 miles of our home bar. Everyone talks about food miles; maybe booze miles are next?

By: Blair 'TraderTiki' Reynolds

Blair 'TraderTiki' Reynolds — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:25:49 +0000

Heck, even blogging and site hosting has its proponents. Put in a google search for "green site hosting", plenty come up. There's also renewable energy credits. As for myself, I figure I'm saving the world from another lime rotting on the ground, or molasses gone to waste. Now, as soon as House Spirits puts out their rum, it'll be only a short hop to the distiller. Won't that be convenient!