- Greenstar’s first two beers, an India pale ale and an American pale ale. I’m 80 percent sure that’s the IPA on the left.
In 2011 the Green Restaurant Association named Uncommon Ground’s two locations the first and second greenest restaurants in the country—and in this case “green” means solar panels and wind power, not homemade composting toilets and fruit flies everywhere. Last month Uncommon Ground raised the bar by launching Greenstar Brewing, certified by Wisconsin-based nonprofit MOSA (the Midwest Organic Services Association) as the first organic brewery in Illinois. It’s in a 1,200-square-foot space just north of the Wrigleyville restaurant, whose bar is pouring Greenstar’s first two beers, an American pale ale and an India pale ale; by the end of August, Greenstar will be on tap at the Devon location too. With the exception of the occasional festival, you won’t be able to drink this stuff anywhere else.
The big distinction is of course the necessity for organic ingredients, which can present supply problems—the malt situation is pretty good, Coad says, but an organic brewer has to settle for a relatively small palette of hop varieties. At first, he jokes, he thought to himself, “I’m gonna have to make all my beers with Cascade.” But as small organic farms (and organic beers) have proliferated—many breweries that aren’t themselves certified make a beer or two that is—his options have broadened.
Anyway. Despite what American drinkers have been trained to expect upon seeing the words “pale ale,” neither of these beers will satisfy a hop fiend—they don’t jump out of the glass and slap you around. But Coad clearly learned a thing or two about handling malts from the Germans at Hofbräuhaus. Both recipes call for a portion of Munich malt, the variety that gives a great doppelbock its creamy mouthfeel.
I went looking for something that isn’t 12 years old, and thought about posting “Fertile Green” from High on Fire‘s 2012 LP De Vermis Mysteriis. I decided to go even newer, though.
