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Drink beer to help the planet! London brewery creates world’s first carbon negative pint

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Now you can drink beer to help the planet! The London brewery creates the world’s first truly carbon negative pint

  • Gipsy Hill Brewery in London has made the world’s first carbon negative beer
  • Beer removes more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than it produces

By Shivali Best for Mailonline

Updated:

Whether it’s turning off lights when not in use or bringing a reusable water bottle instead of buying a plastic one, many of us are trying to take steps to reduce our carbon footprint.

Now there’s a new way to help the planet – and it’s great news if you’re a fan of a cold pint.

Gipsy Hill Brewery in London claims to have made the world’s first carbon negative beer.

The Swell Lager and Trail Pale are brewed with barley grown through regenerative farming and hops that have been reclaimed and reused.

This means you can enjoy your pint knowing that it removes more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than it produces.

The Swell Lager and Trail Pale are brewed with barley grown through regenerative farming and hops that have been reclaimed and reused

While other breweries, such as BrewDog, claim to have carbon negative beers, this one relied on carbon offsetting.

In this controversial process, companies offset their CO2 emissions by financing equivalent CO2 savings elsewhere.

For example, BrewDog claims its beers are carbon negative because it plants trees on 9,308 hectares of land in the Scottish Highlands.

However, Gipsy Hill’s new beers mark the first time a brewery has produced a truly carbon negative beer, without relying on carbon offsets.

To create the beers, Gipsy Hill used certified regenerative barley from Wildfarmed.

This company works with farmers to adopt regenerative practices, meaning the process of growing barley stores more carbon in the soil than it releases to the atmosphere.

“We’re making it easy for people to solve some of the world’s biggest problems — like climate change and food security — by consuming food and drink made with ingredients from healthy, regenerative soil,” said Edd Lees, co-founder of Wildfarmed.

‘Our wild-grown barley sequesters carbon, increases biodiversity and is the gold standard for regenerative agriculture.’

Gipsy Hill’s new beers mark the first time a brewery has produced a truly carbon negative beer, without relying on carbon offsets

In general, a pint of the Swell Lager has a carbon footprint of -40gCO2e, while a pint of the Trail Pale results in -30gCO2e

This regenerative barley is then combined with recaptured hops from previous batches of beer.

These hops are usually thrown away, meaning that using them results in zero greenhouse gas emissions, according to Gipsy Hill Brewery.

In general, a pint of the Swell Lager has a carbon footprint of -40gCO2e, while a pint of the Trail Pale results in -30gCO2e.

For comparison, Imperial College London predicts that half a liter of internationally produced lager has a CO2 footprint of 759 g CO2e.

Sam McMeeken, co-founder of Gipsy Hill Brewery, said: ‘Making high quality beer has been our obsession for 10 years, but I felt we needed to find a way to do it more sustainably.

“Great beer should be guilt-free, and with our new Trail Pale and Swell Lager, our drinkers can safely enjoy a pint for the first time knowing that it is actively improving the environment and helping solve our climate crisis.”

The carbon negative beers are now available in a number of locations, including Gipsy Hill’s taproom in South London and a selection of Youngs locations across the UK.

MailOnline has contacted Gipsy Hill for pricing information.

WHEN DID PEOPLE BEGIN DRINKING BEER?

Humans have a long history of consuming alcohol.

It is believed that the primitive cultures of Mesopotania date back as far as 10,000 BC.

The earliest evidence of beer drinking dates back to 9,000 years ago in northern China.

This ancient concoction was made using hawthorn fruit, Chinese wild grapes, rice and honey, and is the oldest known fermented drink in history – even older than wine.

The earliest evidence of beer drinking dates back to 9,000 years ago in northern China

To make it, the corn was ground and moistened in the maker’s mouth to convert starches in the corn into fermentable sugars – before being ‘spit’ into the beer.

Throughout history, the consumption of alcohol may have helped people become more creative, promoting the development of language, art, and religion.

This is because alcohol lowers inhibitions and makes people feel more spiritual.

It is believed that the Egyptians started brewing beer around 5000 BC, according to the papyrus scrolls.

They brewed things like dates, pomegranates, and other native herbs.

Around 3150 B.C., the Egyptians used industrial-scale breweries to supply beer to the workers building the pyramids of Giza.

Beer eventually made its way from the Middle East to Europe, where an abundance of barley crops provided many raw materials for brewers.

Experts have now found evidence of brewing in Greece during the Bronze Age.

Researchers believe that these prehistoric people had fun with alcoholic beverages for parties all year round and not just when the grapes were ripe.

Not only was it considered nutritious, it was also a safe alternative to drinking water.

It was in the Middle Ages that malted barley became the main source of fermented sugar and beer became the drink we know today.

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