Our Beer is completely, 100% organic

Organic food, organic cotton, organic this and that – the amount of organic stuff has snowballed in the past decade. Since 2008, we’ve been using 100% organic ingredients to make our beer and we’re sticking to this even though it costs us more.

But what exactly is organic?

In an (organic) nutshell, producing something organically means it’s made in a way that works with nature, not against it, and avoids the use of artificial chemicals – in every part of a business: from manufacturing and production to storage and sales, and even its suppliers. All stages have to be organic.

Very occasionally, artificial chemicals might have to be used, but this is only allowed when natural or organic options are not available and there’s an important need: if a farm animal becomes seriously ill, for example.

So what about organic farming?

Being organic applies to the whole farm – from soil to consumer. As well as avoiding artificial chemicals, the farm tries to be as green as possible: recycling everything (including animal poo!), minimising waste, treating animals ethically, not using any kind of genetically modified organism, and managing non-farmed land in a wildlife-friendly way. Not weeding close to hedges to let more flowers grow is a good example.

Organic farmers manage pests using natural methods: for example, attracting natural predators like ladybirds which eat greenfly. They are permitted to use 20 pesticides, compared to around 400 in non-organic farming, but these are derived from natural ingredients – such as citronella from citrus fruits and clove oil - and their use is only permitted under very restricted circumstances.

How do I know it's really organic?

Organic is the only environmental standard that’s enshrined in law, and organic products will have the special organic logo on them (see the one above).

The logo is given out by the Soil Association which is the organisation deciding if something really is organic. It has a tough set of standards which businesses must meet before they can call their products organic. And it’s not just food and drink: these apply to forestry, beauty & wellbeing, fashion & textiles and catering sectors as well.

When you buy something organic, you can be confident that it has been grown or produced in ways that are regenerating the environment and working with nature.