The Italian micro-brewery Foglie d’Erba (Leaves of Grass) earned first prize in the category “Anglo-American origin hoppy beers” with their PEFC certified beer at the recent Sapore Beer Festival, held in Rimini, Italy in February. “[W]e are delighted that our PEFC-certified beer is recognised by true connoisseurs,” enthused the creator of the beer, Gino Perissutti of Foglie d’Erba. “Our beer is the first – and so far only - beer in the world to achieve PEFC certification, as it is flavored with pine needles, pine cones, and resin, which are all collected from PEFC-certified forests.”
As a forester, I rather like trees. I tasted pine needles (forestry is a spit and whittle occupation sometimes) and I can’t say that I want my beer to taste like a ponderosa pine.
More and links here: http://normbenson.com/timberati/2011/03/24/sustainable-forest-certified-beer/