ORCA ACTION MONTH

How A Refreshing Beer Can Make The World A Better Place

Beer can help create a healthier Puget Sound. That’s the idea behind a collaboration between Washington Conservation Action, Washington Wild, a nonprofit that seeks to preserve wilderness, and Lucky Envelope brewery in Seattle’s Ballard, a neighborhood that might be called the “Napa of beer.”

“We started thinking about this last fall,” says Rein Attemann, Washington Conservation Action’s Puget Sound campaign manager. “Washington Wild has this program called the Brewshed Alliance, which works with nearly 90 brewing industry partners statewide to protect the most important ingredient in beer: water.

“Last year, they did a Save the Snake River lager with Stoup Brewing Company and 50 industry partners, to highlight the issue of the lower Snake River dams and how they impact salmon habitat and so many other things. We thought, ‘Why couldn’t we do that for our ‘We Are Puget Sound’ (WAPS) project?”

Washington Conservation Action published the book of the same name in 2019 with Braided River, an imprint of Mountaineers Books. It’s a collection of essays and photographs that celebrate the people, wildlife, plants, communities, and ecosystems that make up the Salish Sea. It became a traveling exhibit, and the Burke Museum at the University of Washington on June 3 opened an expanded version of that exhibit, which will run through the end of this year.

Lucky Envelope developed a WAPS Hazy Pale Ale to highlight the museum show and the ideas in the book. The brew features exclusively salmon safe grains from Linc Malt and Yakima Chief Hops, both businesses that emphasize clean water and clean growing practices. Ray Kwan, Lucky Envelope’s co-founder, is the board president of WA Wild. He and his brewmasters accelerated the brewing process so that the beer would be ready to serve on tap at a Burke Museum members’

WAPS sneak peek event on June 2.

Lucky Envelope also hosted an event June 15 featuring WAPS imagery and representatives from Washington Conservation Action, WA Wild and Braided River. The organizers hope that those who raise a glass of WAPS Hazy Pale Ale will be inspired to take at least one of the 10 actions for positive change outlined in the book.

“There are lots of ways to stand up for the environment,” says Attemann, the Washington Conservation Action point person for the project. “With this effort, we’re saving the Puget Sound one beer at a time.”