Sewage Brewage: Making Beer From Wastewater

The latest in specialty brewing: beer made out of recycled sewage water.

Clean Water Services, a wastewater operator in Washington County, OR, is holding a competition this summer that will enlist 10 home brewers to use recycled water to make beer, according to KGW.

The competition may help shine a light on the importance of recycled water.

"Is there another use we can use for it to meet our long-term water needs? Oregon needs to be thinking about that," Mark Jockers of Clean Water Services said in the report.

When it comes to making beer, recycled water may actually have an edge on tap water because of how the brewing process works.

"The agency says a special purification system is able to make sewer water even cleaner than your typical drinking water," the report said.

"The water that comes from the high purity water system is the cleanest water on the planet," Jockers said, per the report. That's meaningful because cleaner water creates better beer, according to the report.

There were some regulatory hurdles the competition had to jump through before it could get off the ground.

"The Department of Environmental Quality allows recycled water to be used for drinking purposes, but only if it goes through a specific process that includes approval from state and national agencies, as well as a public hearing. State officials told KGW the brewers are following this process," the report said.

Clean Water Services has held the same competition in the past.

"Thirteen brewers crafted 16 styles of beer using water from the Tualatin River, including 30 percent effluent from Clean Water Services’ upstream wastewater treatment facility. The source water was further treated by Clean Water Services, beyond drinking water standards, and then offered to Portland-area home brewers to concoct the best beer possible," Water Online reported.