Deschutes Brewery debuts first certified organic Non-alcoholic beer

Patagonia Provisions and Deschutes Brewery are releasing two new certified organic beers: Kernza Lager and Non-Alcoholic Kernza Golden Brew, available nationwide starting Sept. 4. Non-Alcoholic Kernza Golden Brew is the first certified organic non-alcoholic craft beer brewed in the U.S., giving consumers a high-quality organic option in the fastest growing beer category.

These premium beers are bright, crisp and wildly drinkable. They are brewed with certified organic Kernza (a soil-saving, carbon-capturing perennial grain), certified organic Helios and Adeena hops, certified organic malted 2-row barley, and Regenerative Organic Certified rye. The ingredients for both brews are grown in ways that improve soil health, minimize erosion, preserve biodiversity, and protect waterways.

“We are proud to drive responsible change within the beer industry, and we’re thankful to the farmers, suppliers, and retailers who are on this journey with us,” said Peter Skrbek, CEO, Deschutes Brewery. “Their trust in Deschutes and Patagonia Provisions allows us the opportunity to source and scale organic and regenerative ingredients for our beers.

With a mission to shift the brewing industry toward more responsible practices, Patagonia Provisions and Deschutes are aiming to expand the use of Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) and organic ingredients in beer. These practices can enhance economic stability for farmers and reduce dependency on costly synthetic inputs, all the while rebuilding damaged soil.

“We are also proud to be able to offer a full-fidelity nonalcoholic option brewed with Kernza. This will be the first organic non-alcoholic beer broadly available in the United States. After more than five years of research and development into non-alcoholic technologies we recently made a significant investment to install Sustainable Beverage Technologies’ patented BrewVo system.”

In 1996, Patagonia successfully pivoted their conventional cotton supply chain to organic cotton, and Patagonia Provisions and Deschutes are looking to do the same with the beer supply chain.

“We sought to make radically responsible beer that delivers on our values with exceptional quality and approachable taste, brewed with organic and regenerative ingredients, and widely distributed across the US,” said Paul Lightfoot, General Manager of Patagonia Provisions. “There are thousands of craft breweries making amazing nationally available beers, but less than 1% of craft breweries make certified organic beer. Deschutes Brewery is one of them.”

Deschutes brews all of its non-alcs in-house using Sustainable Beverage Technologies’ (SBT) patented BrewVo® technology in combination with Deschutes’ proprietary brewing methods. This groundbreaking technology allows Deschutes to gently remove alcohol from the beer, while retaining all of the flavors, aromas, mouthfeel, body and head retention the brewery’s award-winning beers are known for.

Patagonia Provisions and Deschutes work with Mad Agriculture to source organic Kernza from the Perennial Promise Grower’s Cooperative, a farmer-led ingredients company committed to scaling the impact of perennial grains and advancing regenerative and organic farming methods. The Regenerative Organic Certified rye is malted by Admiral Maltings; the organic 2-Row barley malt is sourced from Briess Malt & Ingredients Company; the organic Adeena hops come from Roy Farms; the organic Helios hops from Hopsteiner; and Imperial Yeast supplies the organic yeast.