Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

Patagonia Puts Down Roots in the Beer World

Lee Heidel
By

Patagonia and Hopworks Urban Brewery teamed up to create Long Root Ale, a beer made with Kernza.

Patagonia is a well known maker of outdoor clothing and accessories catering to climbers, skiers, trail runners, surfers and fishermen. The company’s commitment to the environment is a key part of its story as Patagonia strives to use responsibly-sourced materials, fair labor and practices like garment repair to reduce its impact on the earth.

Recommended Videos

Patagonia’s environmental stewardship extends to its food focused sub-brand Patagonia Provisions. A high profile release from Patagonia Provisions for 2016 is Long Root Ale, a beer made with Kernza. Looking to the brewing basics of water, hops, grains and yeast, Kernza is combined with organic two row barley to fill the all important grain role, creating the malt backbone of the beer.

The Kernza plant has a long root system (hence the beer’s name) that allows for perennial growth without tilling. No tilling means preserving beneficial topsoil. When compared to other grains, Kernza retains more nutrients, adds more carbon and requires less water.

long root can
Image used with permission by copyright holder

While being great for the environment is a wonderful side effect, it wouldn’t matter much if the beer wasn’t good. Hopworks Urban Brewery provides the industry know-how behind Long Root Ale and its guidance has brewed up a crisp, refreshing beer with a unique malt flavor that holds up well to session drinking. A bright citrusy series of hops including Chinook, Mosaic and Crystal and Long Root Ale finishes the beer with a grapefruit tinge. The retail availability of sixteen ounce cans is a perfect camping or backpacking companion, fitting Long Root Ale precisely into Patagonia’s sweet spot of stylish adventuring.

Currently Long Root Ale is available throughout Oregon, Washington and California at Whole Foods stores and select bars, including the Hopworks tasting rooms in Portland.

Photo credit: Amy Kumler

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Lee Heidel
Lee Heidel
Lee Heidel is the managing editor of Brew/Drink/Run, a website and podcast that promotes brewing your own beer, consuming the…
The 17 Best Coffee-Infused Beers To Flip All the Switches
best coffee beers 2021

Sometimes a downer is made all the better with an upper. We're not talking about the heart-racing, stay-up-all-night kinda way a round of Red Bull Vodka’s or Four Loko's might inspire. More like a pleasant coffee-infused beer. The two realms play really well together. Coffee, with its nutty, earthy, citrusy, roasted elements, and an excellent craft beer with its infinite alignments of grain and hops. Because the flavor spectrums are so broad for each element, though, matching the two requires a bit of skill.

In the old days of craft, it was hard to find much beyond a porter or stout being given the roasted bean treatment. Today, coffee is playing award-winning cameos in IPAs and golden ales and showing up in other styles in the forms of cold brew, espresso, and more. Brewers and roasters from all over the country are teaming up to show how their very specific recipes and coffee bean types can combine to create something else entirely. Here are a few worthy of some space in your fridge.

Read more
9 Best IPA Beers to Sip Right Now
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company - Resilience Butte County Proud IPA

In the land of beer, is there anything more celebrated than the IPA? We didn't think so. The India Pale Ale has evolved from a higher-ABV style originally brewed to last the length of long voyages to a universe of complex, hop-centric beer with a devoted following.

It is the beer craft that has been put on a pedestal. In doing so, the industry has executed some remarkable work, with a sensitivity towards hop bills not unlike a gifted winemaker would employ when sourcing fruit or contemplating a final blend. The IPA has become the calling card of any brewer who wants to enter and remain in this saturated marketplace. Pull off a good one, and you're here to stay. Mess up, and good luck convincing the beer heads out there that you're worth their time.

Read more
The 5 Best Patriotic Beers for Celebrating the Fourth of July
best patriotic beers 4th of july to celebrate the fourth

The Fourth of July is that time of the year when we can enjoy a hearty picnic with our compatriots as fireworks adorn the sky. We may not have large gatherings this year, but there’s one thing that will unite the American people: Craft beer. Instead of purchasing beers from companies with American-themed branding, you might as well grab these patriotic craft beers that celebrate the heritage of the United States.
Anchor Brewing Company Liberty Ale
Photo Credit: Ramiro Silva (Flickr) Image used with permission by copyright holder

Perhaps the perfect beer to drink on the 4th of July is Anchor Brewing’s Liberty Ale. It was originally brewed for the bicentennial of Paul Revere’s ride way back in 1875. (You know, that whole "the British are coming” jaunt.) Having been introduced in 1975, Liberty Ale has the distinction of being the first modern IPA and perhaps the true spark of the craft beer boom -- so many other beers wouldn’t be here today without it. Honor the American revolution with a revolutionary beer.

Read more