Meet Grady Hull, the brewmaster who designed New Belgium’s first organic beer, Mothership Wit. It joins a small but growing number of organic beers sold in Europe, Australia and the U.S. commercially released last year. Nationally, annual sales of organic beer have increased steadily, from $9 million in 2003 to $25 million in 2006.
Q: “Organic beer” almost seems like an oxymoron. Isn’t organic beer kind of like organic junk food?
A: Beer’s really one of the last things people think about, in terms of organic products. But our customers tend to be more health-centered about what they’re putting into their bodies.
Q: Avoiding pesticides and additives, you mean?
A: Well, when you spray hops or barley, the chemicals are water-soluble. When you’re extracting hops and barley, you’re also potentially extracting chemicals and anything water-soluble that was sprayed on the plant. Beer is 96 percent water. Most of the solid matter from hops and barley doesn’t transfer to the beer. So it ends up making more sense to have an organic beer.
Q: Who came up with the idea of an organic New Belgium beer?
A: It was the CEO and a group of us who came up with it together. We wanted to do an organic beer, and thought it’d be good with a wit.
Q: A wit?
A: A wit is a Belgian-style wheat beer. The main focus is on the type of yeast used. In a wit, the yeast has a lot of banana and clove that gives a unique characteristic and flavor.
Q: Sounds more Caribbean than Belgian. Were there any reservations about making an organic beer?
A: At first, it was a little daunting. We thought it’d be hard to get government approval. The reason, I think, people are so slow to get into organic beer is that they’re intimidated by the process. You get inspected, which means adding a headache to business life. But it’s not as bad as you’d imagine it to be. Our inspection was great, pleasant, no problem.
Q: Is organic beer more expensive to make?
A: Yes, but the truth is that so much of the cost is in distribution and packaging that the overall effect isn’t that huge. I think it’s just 50 cents more a six-pack or something.
Want to test your Wit? Three 12-ounce bottles of Mothership Wit are included in New Belgium’s Folly Pack. The beer is also available on tap through- out the metro region.
– Claire Martin, The Denver Post
