Whether you dropped a can while bringing the groceries, your dog knocked a can off the picnic table, or someone spilled some during a party, you may be thinking, in the back of your mind, “is that spilled beer going to be a problem later?” No matter how much, what kind, or when the spill happened, you can learn what it does to your lawn and how to correct any issues below.
Is Beer Bad for Grass?
Beer is more harmful than beneficial for a lawn. It contains alcohol, sugar, and a little salt. None of these things are going to do your plants any good (though there is a myth that they will, discussed below.) The most beneficial component of beer for your lawn would be its water component.
That said, pouring a can of beer onto a small patch of dry grass will cause a little yellowing after a day in the hot sun. This can easily be avoided by any type of watering, be it another can worth of water poured on the same spot or a few minutes of sprinkler time the following morning.
What Will Beer Do to Grass?
Beer isn’t a great help to your lawn because none of its ingredients are directly beneficial to it. For example, alcohol has been said to “sterilize” your lawn and it will. However, for your lawn to thrive it needs a healthy microbiome. These small organisms help free up nitrogen and allow your grass to make better use of available nutrients. The relationship is symbiotic. Pouring alcohol over the area depletes these beneficial micro-organisms and paves the way for faster-growing fungus to take over.
Speaking of fungus, there are sugars in beer and simple carbohydrates that fungus loves. Sugar can also draw in ants and the yeast in beer can be a draw as well as food for slugs. Your grass cannot use these sugars or the yeast as a nutrient. Further, while a single beer won’t have enough sugar to change the pH of your soil, a case of broken bottles or the end of a keg poured over a small area can lead to acidic soil due to the dissolved sugar.
Beyond these major components, beer also contains a fair amount of B vitamins, choline, and phosphorous. The B vitamins and choline won’t do much good for your lawn, but they’re not outright harmful. The phosphorous could help your lawn, but there are many better, cheaper sources without the risks of beer.
Myth: Beer Is Healthy for Your Lawn
Several popular gardeners gave out this type of advice several decades ago. They would say that pouring just a little bit of cheap beer on any problem spots in your lawn would help sterilize the area and feed your grass. Today we know that this is not the case and it will instead have the effects described above.
How Do You Clean Up Beer on Grass?
Unless an entire keg of any kind ends up spilled on your lawn, cleaning up a spill is as easy as flooding the area with water for about 5 minutes. This should dilute the beer to the point where it won’t have any effect on your lawn. This should be done as soon as possible after the spill occurs.
Beer Does More Harm Than Good
Beer will not create healthier soil. The sugars in beer will not provide a sustainable source of energy for microbes, cannot feed your grass, and may cause a bloom of fungus or attract insects. The alcohol may harm the leaves and roots of your lawn. Salt or salinity will prevent growth altogether. Yeast attracts and feeds slugs but not grass. The few vitamins in beer do not contribute to the health of plants in general and the remaining two components, water and phosphorous, are not worth the risk of adding all of these other elements.
In short, if beer has been spilled on your lawn it should be diluted or mopped up and then diluted. It will not help your lawn and adding already diluted beer to your lawn isn’t good advice. Beer does not lead to a healthy lawn. This is a long-standing myth that has been debunked time and again.
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