Sewage Brewing: Waste-Water Beer Approved In Oregon
The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission has recently given approval to a beer company to use filtered waste-water to brew beer. The waste-water beer will, rather appropriately, be a light yellow colored lager to be brewed by home brewers using recycled sewage.
According to Clean Water Services of Oregon, the hope is that this approval will show consumers just how pure recycled waste-water actually is. Apparently, the consuming of recycled waste-water is a common thing elsewhere in the world, but people have tended, for the most part, to turn up their noses at this method in the U.S.
Bottoms up! Oregon utility challenges home brewers to make great-tasting beer from sewer water: http://t.co/XQgM7SSa3g
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 29, 2015
Time reports that Clean Water Services were so proud of their excellent recycling system that they applied to the Commission on Environmental Quality for permission to brew beer, and this was granted on Wednesday.
Oregon Brew Crew are now producing the waste-water beer and will be serving the brew at company events. However, the product is still awaiting final approval by health and safety officials, so don’t go running out expecting to buy it right now.
So far, one health authority official has approved the idea, giving full credit to the quality of the treated waste-water, along with the additional microbial reduction during the process of brewing and the fact that the final waste-water beer generally offers a low risk to health.
Has craft beer gone too far? Oregon to brew beer from sewage water http://t.co/hNACdk6pfl pic.twitter.com/1NCUiA5Dee — CBC British Columbia (@cbcnewsbc) April 30, 2015
According to Newsweek, recycled sewage water is already being used in some cases to spread on crops for irrigation in Oregon and is also being used to recharge groundwater.
Of course, the Inquisitr reported that Bill Gates was working with a company called Janicki Bioenergy on a sewage treatment machine which can transform human feces and sewage into drinkable water. Gates even made the drinking of the purified sewage water even more famous by tricking Jimmy Fallon into drinking a glass, and they both survived the experience.
sharing #suaju While You Were Offline: Bill Gates Drinks Water That Used to Be Poop #technology #geek http://t.co/Xob53JRNix
— sMedia 2 sCommerce (@Media2Commerce) May 1, 2015
That said, would you be happy to quaff down the new waste-water beer? Let us know in the comments below.
[Image: Close up of beer CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Christian Guthier]
