Green Beer: Incentivizing Sustainability in California\u27s Brewing Industry

Part II of this Article examines the role of alcoholic beverages in human history, paying special attention to alcohol as a motivating factor in large-scale social change. Part III examines the prominence of California’s unique brewing industry and the economic and social ubiquity of Californian beer. As discussed in Parts IV and V, that ubiquity and prominence, as well as California’s historical leadership on environmental issues, make the state an ideal testing ground for sustainable brewing legislation. After an examination of California’s energy use in producing beer, Parts VI and VII break down the brewing process and explain a selection of opportunities to mitigate its environmental impact. These Parts discuss general and process-specific measures that either reduce energy demand or provide some other type of environmental control. Part VIII turns to various California legislative schemes that purport to achieve similar goals. It examines how various aspects of these schemes might serve as models for sustainable brewing legislation. Part IX synthesizes those models by proposing a sustainable brewing legislative scheme