A kölsch-style beer created from recycled wastewater has been made and its called the Epic OneWater Brew.
It is the result of a collaboration between a San Francisco water recycling company called Epic Cleantec and the Northern California-based beermaker Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company. The Epic OneWater Brew is, according to the Guardian, made from greywater which is basically wastewater from dishes, laundry, and bathroom shower and sinkwater that originates from a 40-story apartment complex in San Francisco.
“We wanted to do something fun that was going to be an engaging tool to talk to people, to get them excited, but also that showcased the untapped potential of water reuse,” Aaron Tartakovsky, Epic Cleantec’s co-founder and CEO, told the Guardian.
Matthew Canton, the Guardian writer who tested the beer, described the beer as “pretty tasty.” He further described it as “pleasant,” “crisp” and “drinkable,” with “no notes of shower or laundry.”
“We wanted to choose a beer that was going to be sort of more universally liked versus some of the more craft beers, like an IPA, that some people like, some people don’t,” he added, speaking to the choice to create a crowd-pleasing kölsch-style beer.
“I think a lot of people… were skeptical about the project or were hesitant to try it,” Tartakovsky told the Guardian, “but I would say 99 percent who came in feeling a little bit apprehensive, once they tried it, got really excited.”
Tartakovsky argues that Epic’s product might actually be safer for consumers than other beers due to the rigorous testing process that they require for all the people worried about the recycled water’s safety.
“A lot of times at a brewery, you turn on the tap and whatever water you get, that’s what you brew with,” he continued. “In our case, we have so much control over the treatment process that we were actually able to treat to tweak some of the steps to give the brewers a blank canvas.”
Epic OneWater Brew is an example of all the various ways in which our ever-growing water crisis can be averted and how we can tackle this issue in a very creative and innovative way.