Some companies boast of making beer with spring water from majestic mountains.
They likely will not be competing in the upcoming Pure Water Brew Challenge, in which an Oregon wastewater treatment operator has asked home brewers to make great-tasting beer from hops, barley, yeast and the key, not-so-secret ingredient: treated sewer water.
The point of the contest is not to find Portland’s next trendy craft beer. Rather, it is an effort to get people talking about how a vital resource can be reused thanks to advanced water-filtration systems.
“We need to be judging water by its quality, and not by its history,” said Mark Jockers, a spokesman for Clean Water Services, which runs four wastewater treatment facilities in the suburbs of Portland.
“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,” Jockers added.
The utility plans to release 1,135 liters of highly purified water in early June to roughly 20 home brewers from the Oregon Brew Crew, the state’s oldest home-brewing club.
A panel of experts is to judge the beers in late July or early August. The winner is to receive US$100, five others will get US$50 and their kegs are to be taken to an international water conference in Chicago.
Although state regulators have approved the safety of the water, the beer is not to be sold at stores or bars.
Although some might find toilet-to-tap totally gross, places from Singapore to parts of California and Texas use treated effluent for drinking water, generally mixing it into the regular supply.
Last year, Clean Water Services held a contest in which brewers used water drawn from a river. That batch contained 30 percent treated wastewater. This year’s competition will be 100 percent “sewage brewage.”
Ted Assur won the top prize in the river contest, defeating a dozen competitors with his Vox Max Belgian beer.
He said the contest was unique, because participants were to make beer that highlights the water.
“As a brewer, that’s not usually the ingredient you’re highlighting; it’s either the malt or the hops or the yeast,” he said. “I took it to mean something light, refreshing.”
Assur described the highly purified water as stark, almost like distilled water, allowing him to essentially start with a blank slate before adding mineral salts.
“It is some of the best water I’ve ever made beer with,” he said. “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. I felt like that was a factor in producing a great beer.”
He would not divulge what type of beer he intends to make this time around. With the contest getting national publicity, he expects a fiercer competition.
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