Words by Francesca Garton, one of Wiper and True’s founders
As someone who cares a lot about both beer and reversing the climate emergency, it is particularly exciting for me that Wiper and True is releasing a beer to mark COP26 – the 26th UN Climate Change Conference being hosted in Glasgow later this month.
Great Adaptations, a Cardamom & Coffee Stout, has been named in homage to one of COP26’s key goals: ‘adaptation - to urgently adapt to protect communities and natural habitats’. The beer has been developed in partnership with The Glacier Trust, a UK-based charity whose mission it is to help remote and vulnerable communities in Nepal do exactly that: adapt to the devastating impacts of climate change.
The work of The Glacier Trust and the story behind it is what makes this beer such a particularly special one for us at Wiper and True, and it is especially fitting that we are launching it at the beginning of our Company’s quest to build a state-of-the-art new brewery and taproom with sustainability at the heart of all it does.
Our partnership with The Glacier Trust is a very poignant one. The charity was founded in 2008 by my father Robin Garton, one of Wiper and True’s fondest supporters. Seven years later he was tragically killed in a fall while taking a solo hike in the Scottish Highlands. His body was found by members of the public over eight months after he was reported as missing. The dedication and bravery shown by the mountain rescue teams involved in the search for him was truly humbling. Equally inspiring is the tireless work of all those who have carried on and grown the projects that my father began - in particular The Glacier Trust’s Co-Director Dr Morgan Phillips, whose idea it was to make this beer.
Cultivating organic coffee and cardamom
It is through one of the projects that The Glacier Trust developed that the organic coffee and cardamom used in this beer were cultivated. Organic coffee and cardamom farming is not something that has always been part of life for subsistence farmers in the Himalayan foothills, but The Glacier Trust and its partners have helped introduce this both as a way to improve livelihoods, and to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The impacts of climate change are already very real and dangerous for the communities that live there. Landslides are increasingly common, crops fail due to unseasonably high temperatures, and severe rain, hail storms and prolonged droughts are further compounded by the arrival of new insect pests and parasitic plants that can devastate crops.
Educational outreach programmes and training for subsistence farmers organised by The Glacier Trust enables them to improve their farming methods and produce crops for sale in local markets. The benefits for communities and the climate are multifaceted. Organic, multi-crop, layer farming, for example, helps to stabilise the slopes prone to landslides, while training enables communities to organise into cooperatives, bringing more economic security.
My father Robin was a generous, kind, and enthusiastic individual, and nothing would have pleased him more than enjoying a beer made with ingredients that have helped those most at risk of climate change adapt to the significant challenges they face. Wiper and True is donating all the profits from our Great Adaptations beer to support the vital work of The Glacier Trust.
Order Great Adaptations and join Wiper and True & The Glacier Trust for a beer
The beer is available to order online now, and on Tuesday 9th November we will be bringing some cans along to sample at Waterstones, Bristol, where Morgan Phillips from The Glacier Trust will be introducing his book, Great Adaptations. Grab a free ticket to the event here. Afterwards, we’ll be heading along to the Beer Emporium on King Street to continue the evening, and enjoy a few beers together. Please come along and join us as we raise a toast to Robin Garton and The Glacier Trust’s brilliant work.
