In an era of drought, turning treated wastewater into drinking water may be the future. Utility companies are working with breweries to get people past the “ick factor.Epic OneWater Brew looks like your classic hipster craft beer.
The can has a sleek design with the silhouette of a city skyline, and it cracks open with a satisfying hiss. The beer, a Kölsch, has a crisp golden hue and a signature fruity taste.
But there is one big difference: It is made with recycled wastewater.
Epic OneWater Brew, the product of a partnership between a wastewater technology start-up and a Bay Area craft brewery, is made with treated shower and laundry water collected from a luxury high-rise apartment building in San Francisco. And it’s not the only beer of its kind.
As water sources, particularly in the western United States, dry up from overuse, drought and climate change, supporters of direct potable reuse — the use of treated wastewater in the drinking water supply — are pitching it as part of the solution. Increasingly, they are turning to beer as a way of getting people beyond the “ick factor” that has been a hurdle to its broader acceptance.
If people are reluctant to drink recycled wastewater, the thinking goes, perhaps they could be enticed if it were served in the form of a frosty cold one.Aaron Tartakovsky, the co-founder and chief executive of Epic Cleantec, the wastewater technology company that worked with Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company of San Carlos, Calif., to create Epic OneWater Brew, said he wanted to make the beer to show the “untapped potential” of water reuse.
“We live in what we like to call here at Epic a ‘flush-and-forget’ society,” he said. “We have this innate yuck factor when it comes to talking about wastewater, or sewage, and all of these other sort of yuck-factor topics.”Some Western and Southwestern cities that are struggling to manage the challenges of population growth and strained water supplies have held competitions for craft breweries to produce signature beers using recycled wastewater. California, Idaho and Arizona are among the states that have worked with local breweries to raise awareness of the need for water reuse.
Scottsdale, Ariz., which has watered nearly two dozen golf courses with treated wastewater since the 1990s, received a state permit in 2019 allowing for direct potable reuse of its purified recycled water. Scottsdale isn’t currently sending that water into the drinking supply, but Brian Biesemeyer, the executive director of Scottsdale Water, said that could change in two or three years.To help the public get their heads around the concept of drinking treated wastewater, Scottsdale Water invited 10 breweries to make beer using water from the city’s advanced water treatment plant and serve it at an arts festival in 2019. The beer tents were accompanied by an information booth that explained the recycling process.
While people at first went wide-eyed at the prospect of drinking treated wastewater, Mr. Biesemeyer said, many were eager to sample the beers after a tutorial on how clean and safe the treated water is.
“We found the beer event to be a fun way to kind of get people over that fear,” he said.
Desert Monks Brewing Company of Gilbert, Ariz., which took part in the Scottsdale challenge, has embraced the concept and has brewed two beers with Scottsdale’s treated wastewater. Sonoran Mist, a lager, has quickly become the brewery’s top seller, and a Hefeweizen will be added to the lineup next month
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