My favorite event of the week is the Chesapeake Real Ale Festival held at the Pratt Street Ale House on October 16th – more than a dozen breweries presenting their cask conditioned ales.

Forty seven bars, ten weeks, and more than 3,500 miles later, John dips his wheel in the Atlantic at Revere Beach in Massachusetts, and ends his alcoholic odyssey in the Shipwreck Lounge, a dive bar filled with friendly drunks who assert that they just do “the usual crap that gos on in any small town bar in the U.S.”

John’s trip is testament to the truth of that humble boast.

John’s taste in beer is decidedly equal opportunity, swaying with unpretentious ease from bottles of Bud Light purchased at a convenience store and consumed in a parking lot all the way to imperial pints of house-brewed E.S.B. sipped while seated at the bar of the Livery brewpub in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

John’s street cred is impeccable, both for his long devotion to bicycles as well as his cheerful championing of draught beer. Check out his VoteWithYourFeetChicago blog for more of the former and hook up with the Garfield Park Draught Beer Preservation Society for more of the latter.

Greenfield’s writing style is easy and entertaining, to be enjoyed over a draught at your local dive bar. Order a copy from your local bookstore or get it from any online retailer such as the independent lulu.com.

Er, well, technically it will be Shirlington, Virginia at the Capitol City Brewing brewpub. But I volunteered to receive the beer entries at mi casa in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of D.C.

If you haven’t started brewing yet, now is the time. No time left for delay. Get in the kitchen today or this weekend at the latest and brew a batch of organic homebrew. Follow the instructions below for brewing and entering the contest. We’ll be looking for judges and stewards so stay tuned for details.

WHAT: National Organic Brewing Challenge - this is Seven Bridges’ annual organic brewing competition for homebrewers as well as commercial brewers.
WHEN: October 16, hours tbd but likely late morning to early afternoon.
DEADLINE: Entries will be accepted from September 1 – October 9. 
WHERE: Judging takes place at Capitol City Brewing in Shirlington.
COST: Fees to enter the competition but no fee to serve as a judge.
MORE INFO: Check out the Seven Bridges website for details on entering beers in the competition or serving as a judge or steward.

Well, I call them ‘homegrown’ but that term implies that the people in my home did something to grow them. But that’s just not true. All we did is wait and watch to see when the fig tree in our front yard would produce some fruit. Then, once we saw the birds and squirrels chowing down we figured it was time to pick.

So happens we were having a family reunion right when the figs ripened so I had plenty of help from my nieces, nephews and cousins’ children (are they second cousins or cousins once removed?). And fortunately our friend and neighbor Richard was home who came right over with his ladder.

Richard arrives with ladder and handy fruit picking basket.

My youngest nephew Peter don't need no stinkin' ladder. He climbed right up the tree.

Over at Richard and Andrea's, Andrea and Seung cut of the stems in preparation for fig jamming.

Andrea introduces us to the acronym FIGJAM – Fuck I’m Good, Just Ask Me.

The figs stew for about an hour with a bit of honey. Then they go in jars and get called fig jam.

Next year around this time I’ll have honey from my own hive to add to the fig harvest. Can’t wait.

This 5.4 kW solar photovoltaic system should produce most of the electricity we need to run the house. I’m stoked.

Standard Solar unloads solar pv panels from the truck.

Installation gets started and I'm surprised at how quickly the crew gets a couple rows of panels in place.

Minutes later, a bad omen? A serious thunderstorm stops installation efforts in their tracks.

But it ain't no thang, the storm passes ...

... the crew gets back to work...

... and the panels are all installed in about two hours.

The electrical work inside the house took much longer than expected, but at the end of day two I flipped the switch on the inverter and celebrated with a wind-powered Brooklyner Weiss.

This whole system will pay itself off in about five years. After that I’ll have a minimum of 20 more years of free energy guaranteed by a warranty. Right now, the incentives for solar in the District of Columbia are better than they’ve ever been. Interested in doing the same? Check out the District’s website on their incentive program right here. And if you don’t live in DC, check out this national database of renewable energy incentives.

WHAT: DC Eco Forum
SPEAKER: Christophe Tulou, Director of the District Department of the Environment
WHEN: Tuesday, July 27, 6pm – 9pm
WHERE: Sonoma Restaurant & Wine Bar, 223 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington DC
COST: $75
MORE INFO: This event is intended to connect eco-executives. I agreed to be a sponsor and that’s my only real involvement. The organizers say “Admission is based on your corporate affiliation and will be granted strictly to C-Level Executives, Business Owners, CSR Executives, Sustainability Executives & Non-Profit Leaders.” So if that description fits you, I hope you’ll join us for the event. More details on the website. This is essentially corporate schmoozing for the eco-in-crowd. Sounds snooty, I know. So if this isn’t for you, then check out the next event below …

WHAT: DC Green Drinks
SPEAKER: Yours truly, the Beer Activist
WHEN: Tuesday, August 10, 6-9pm
WHERE: Meridian Pint, Columbia Heights, 3400 11th St. NW, Washington, DC 20010
COST: Free
MORE INFO: DC Green Drinks website.

AN ORGANIC BEER TWO-FER

WHAT: National Organic Brewing Challenge - this is Seven Bridges’ annual organic brewing competition for homebrewers as well as commercial brewers. Judges will be needed.
WHEN: October 16, hours tbd but likely late morning to late afternoon.
WHERE: Judging takes place at Capitol City Brewing in Shirlington.
COST: Fees to enter the competition but no fee to serve as a judge.
MORE INFO: Check out the Seven Bridges website for details on entering beers in the competition or serving as a judge or steward.

Then, after the competition, head over to Takoma, DC to enjoy some great organic beer, live bluegrass, and support a great cause.

WHAT: Takoma Foundation Organic Beer Fundraiser
WHEN: October 16, hours tbd but likely late afternoon into the evening.
WHERE: The Cady Lee Mansion in Takoma, DC
COST: $35
MORE INFO: Details coming soon. Save the date and visit the Takoma Foundation website.

For example, Boston Beer, the brewer of Sam Adams beers, gets a lousy C- in Labor and also in Health and Safety, and a measely C in the Environment category. I couldn’t find anything on the Responsible Shopper website describing the precise rating methodology. Although the program existed while I worked at Green America, I don’t recall their being a clear methodology for this then either. So even though I am an ardent supporter of the organization’s work, I have to wonder about the credibility of these ratings given that there is no transparent explanation of how the grades are developed.

All that said, there are some nuggets in here that will inform the sustainability-minded beer drinkers out there. An eye-opener was the fact that AnheuserBusch clocked in at #41 on the Political Economy Research Institute’s 2010 Toxic 100 Air Polluters list. Check out all the gory details right here.

Unfortunately, Boston Beer was the only craft brewer included in the Responsible Shopper breweries profile. I wonder how Sierra Nevada and New Belgium would fare if they were assessed. Knowing quite a bit about the environmental sustainability of both of these companies, I’m curious about their other social responsibility indicators such as labor and governance.

According to The Oregonian, Roots Organic Brewing has closed its doors.

I’ve twice attempted to visit this organic brewpub. But my timing was always bad. Each attempt was met with closed doors. Maybe this bad luck was a sign of things to come. There were actually people in the brewhouse both times but they would not talk to me or let me in. So I never got to experience what one Portland, Oregon local described as the place where he met the best friends of his life.

In 2005, owner and brewer Craig Nicholls opened what the company website claims was Oregon’s first all-organic brewpub. (Strangely the website homepage still says “Now Open for Lunch Weekdays 11:30-2:00″). After five years of producing organic and herbally-inspired brews, the small brewery and pub has decided “it was time to stop the bleeding and cut our losses.”

The Oregonian article says the demise was caused by a combination of problems typical to small businesses, including the recession, under-capitalization and bad weather. However, Roots seems to be an outlier in this regard. Although the restaurant business is certainly struggling in this economy, craft beer overall continues to show double digit growth, and brewpubs in particular are still one of the strongest elements within the restaurant industry.

Nicholls also runs the North American Organic Brewers Festival, which he reportedly intends to continue. Seven Bridges, the organic brewing supply company I part own, made the trip for the festival last year to display our organic brewing kits and meet some of the homebrewers and commercial brewers that buy our goods. Let’s hope this great spotlight on organic brewing doesn’t suffer the same fate as Roots.

He’s live today at 3pm at the Capitol Fringe Festival. Even better is that he’s playing in the beer tent where they have Southampton Double White on draft for $5. If you miss him today, check him out this coming Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

Ed hamell: This Is Your Brain on Rock and Roll

In the late 1800s, Pabst was the largest brewing company in America. But it lost market share through the twentieth century and in 1985 it was purchased by a charitable foundation. In 1996, Past closed the doors of its brewery and has since had its flagship PBR as well as several other cheap industrial light lagers and malt liquors contract brewed by SABMillerCoors.

The non-profit charity was eventually required by law to sell off what was a profit-driven company. In May of this year a sale was finalized to pickle tycoon C. Dean Metropoulos. It’s corn syrup-based recipe continues to be contract brewed at multiple MillerCoors facilities. In this context, one must question the meaning of “blue collar authenticity” when Pabst is no longer a brewery but a clutch of contract-brewed brands managed by a cadre of marketers.

What do you see when you look at a can  of PBR? Overall-clad brewery workers shoveling malt and factory workers popping open cold ones after their shift on the production line? Or a wealthy man hiring people to buy advertising space?