Birds and Beers

Flowers at the Audubon Center

This week I would like to talk about a lecture series that I attended at Audubon Phoenix. This Thursday, the Phoenix Audubon center hosted an event called birds and beers. Birds and beers is an event that is meant to highlight water conservation in Arizona. The Audubon society started a collaboration with craft brewers in Arizona called the western brewers alliance, these brewers are meant to be an outreach point to people who might not be as exposed to wildlife and water conservation. This event was presented by the head brewers of Arizona wilderness brewing and Borderlands brewing. The brewer at Arizona Wilderness was originally a landscape photographer before he began brewing, it was this passion that lead him to want to work with the Audubon. During his time as a brewer he has worked diligently to make sure that his businesses are as sustainable as possible. But he didn't stop with just what he was doing, he wanted to make sure that the ingredients that he was sourcing was as sustainable as well. Now he has helped head the resurgence of barley being grown in the verde valley which replaced alfalfa which requires so much more water. He also helped to get the first malter opened in the state so that brewers don't have to always buy and ship barley from thousands of miles away. So the next time that you're out grabbing a beer take a look for the Audubon label and help support conservation in the state.