Also true: Most of the mass-produced beers that’ll be staring you down in the supermarket as you stock up for the holiday weekend tend to taste like something you’d wring out of a mop, contain ingredients you know nothing about, and are made…well, God only knows how. But don’t despair; we come bearing a list of alternatives. Here are seven craft beers made by people who actually give a shit about the environment, your body, and your taste buds.
- Ground Breaker Brewing Dark Ale$5.97 for 22 ounces,bringonthebeer.com Hailing from a dedicated gluten-free brewery in Portland, this toasty GF ale gets its chocolatey, espresso-like flavor from a surprising combo of organic lentils and roasted, locally grown chestnuts.
- New Belgium Brewing Company 2015 La FoliePaste Magazine is 99.9% waste-free$18.99 for 22 ounces,qualityliquorstore.com Sour beer fans, this one’s for you. named La Folie—which boasts mouth-puckering notes of green apple, cherry, and plum skin—one of the country’s top 10 sour beers. And the Colorado brewery that makes it couldn’t be cooler: New Belgium Brewing Company . We’ll cheers to that. MORE: Gluten-Removed Beer: The Best Thing Ever?
- Sierra Nevada Brewing Company Hop Hunter IPA$7.99 for six 12-ounce bottles,totalwine.com There are plenty of reasons why the EPA named Sierra Nevada Brewing Company Green Business of the Year back in 2010. Chief among them: The company generates 20% of its energy from solar power, and another 40% from on-site hydrogen fuel cells. Oh, and about the beer? If you can’t get enough hops, Hop Hunter IPA is for you. It’s crafted from “steam-distilled wet hops” (that’s beer-snob speak for extracting hop oil on the field, when the plant is at its freshest and most flavorful) for an intense and aromatic brew.
- Yards Brewing Co. Love Stout Philly-based Yards is 100% wind-powered, uses Sustainable Forestry Initiative-certified cardboard packaging, and—get this—recently kicked off a campaign to plant 20,000 bee-friendly gardens in 2015. Its smooth and creamy English-style stout isn’t so bad either.$9.99 for 750 ml, totalwine.com
- Lakefront Brewery Beer Line Organic Barley Wine Style Ale$9.99 for four 12-ounce bottles,lakefrontbrewery.com Wisconsin’s Lakefront Brewery was the first in the country to brew organic beer back in 1996—and they’ve been doing it ever since. Its brand new Barley Wine Style Ale, released in April, is complex, malty, and fruity, and made with locally grown barley.
- Brooklyn Brewery Summer Ale$9.99 for six 12-ounce bottles,binnys.com This quintessential warm weather ale is clean and bright, with just the right amount of bitterness. Plus, it’s got some eco cred: Brooklyn Brewery runs solely on wind power, and gives its spent grain to New Jersey farms to use as livestock feed (or local backyard chicken keepers, if you ask for it). MORE: Kombucha Beer: The New Craft Drink?
- Dogfish Head Tweason’aletotalwine.com Sorghum-based beers can sometimes taste bitter, but this gluten-free classic gets it right. Crisp and light-bodied, the GF brew boasts sweet (but not overly so) notes of molasses and strawberry. $8.99 for four 12-ounce bottles,
