Brewers in Oregon are taking the term home brew to strange new places...
Clean Water Services, a utility company that provides water treatment services to the Portland area, has set a challenge for the enthusiastic and creative home brewers out there to come up with a new beer using their purified water...that comes from the sewers.
The competition will not be looking to mass produce the beer, but rather will look to members of the state's oldest home brewing association, the Oregon Brew Crew, to make small batches of beer and get people talking about the issue of water recycling.
The winning beer will get $100 and five further runners up will receive $50, with the beers then being taken to an international water conference in Chicago to be shown off, and to prove that the recycled water can be used for everything and anything.
Speaking to AP, Mark Jockers, a spokesman for Clean Water Services stated that the quality of the water, not its history, is what should be important to people out there: "the water we're producing is significantly cleaner than what the safe drinking standards are for water that comes out of taps across the United States".
Ted Assur, who won a similar contest last year where they were challenged to use just 30% treated water, is looking forward to trying again this year, saying "It is some of the best water I've ever made beer with. I think the fact that it was really starting with absolutely nothing but water, and then having to add in the exact minerals I needed...that was a factor in producing a great beer."
Would you drink beer that's been made from recycled water?
Via AP
