The landlord’s brow furrowed and he eyed me suspiciously. Suddenly I am seventeen again standing nervously at the bar hoping my date can’t see the beads of sweat beading my forehead. This time though I’m nearly thirty and all I’d asked him was which of his beers was the most eco-friendly. “I don’t know mate” came the reply. Evidently he had never really thought about it.

 Neither had I to be honest until someone set me the challenge of trying to drink green for a few weeks and so I set about it with the enthusiasm of a man combining leisure with work. It turned out that the major brewers hadn’t really thought about it either and whilst they were spending  their considerable advertising budgets making me feel cooler, more fashionable and a bit more Australian for drinking their produce none were really out to show me their green credentials. A little more digging though did unearth some interesting facts which for ease of consumption I’ve broken down into a top five list of ways to drink green:

 1) Cork it - Whilst notes of gooseberry go well on a summers evening the hint of carbon is heaviest with wines imported from far away sun-spots like New Zealand. You can keep the food miles down by drinking British vintages like Château Tooting (http://urbanwineco.com) or the very delicious Camel Valley Brut (www.waitrosewine.com)

 2) Cider visor - On average cider is the greenest variety of the devils juice. The brewing process requires less water and energy than beer and it’s generally made in the UK from locally grown apples.

3) Watered down beer - Brewing beer can be very thirsty work and some of the larger brands are starting to try and cut down on their water consumption. SABMiller who make Grolsch, Miller, Peroni have pledged to reduce water consumption by 25% by 2015.

 4) Go local - London is peppered with small micro-breweries that supply several of the pubs in the South East. Meantime Brewery in Greenwich makes London Pale Ale which has deliciously low food miles and a deliciously good taste. The Florence in Herne Hill also brews their own beer (Weasel, Beaver, Bonobo).

 5) Be neutral -Two companies that stood out as having strong sustainable production values were Sharps in Cornwall (Doombar) and Adnams in Suffolk. Adnams sell the UK’s first Carbon Neutral beer called East Green which is available in Tescos.