When we think of St. Patrick's Day, one of the first things to come to mind is green beer. There are a lot of ways to drink green beer, however, that don't involve food coloring.

Local beers are an easy way to go green. By supporting local beer makers, you are helping cut down on transportation, which in turn helps the environment considerably. You know, not using gas and all that.

Of course, you could take "local" to a whole new level and join Green Options' own Patrick Donnelly in the Adventures with Homebrew (don't forget Part 2!). Adventurous indeed.

Then, as we've "tipped you off" before, are Green Drinks events where you can go and meet other like-mindeds locally and knock back a couple of cold ones.

Finally, there are beers that come from companies doing really cool, green things. Like Brooklyn Brewery, for example. They've been running on wind power for 3 1/2 years now. They also pay local farmers to come by and pick up the grain that has been used in the brewing process. It used to be waste. Now it's animal feed. They aren't the only one's, however.

New Belgium, the makers of Fat Tire Beer, was actually the first wind-powered brewery. They also pay big attention to water use, and have developed ways to use half the amount of water as traditional beer processes. Their sustainability projects go on and on.

Alaskan Beer also has dedicated a page on their website to the environment, stating that they were the first craft brewer (way back in 1998!) to install a CO2 recovery system that actually captures and reuses the greenhouse gasses.

So this weekend as you embark on your St. Patrick's Day journey and start kissing people that are Irish, consider the green-ness of your beer.

Rebecca says: Have fun and be safe! If carpooling, designate a driver. Better yet, go mass transit!

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