Beer can now be made out of recycled wastewater. This is the latest innovation and solution introduced by a California Beer Brewery on San Francisco's shortage of water.
Fox News reports that Half Moon Bay Brewing Company has been making small batches of its Mavericks Tunnel Vision IPA with recycled waste water-known to environmentalists as gray water. Gray water is treated water that's been used in sinks, showers, dishwashers or washing machines except toilets.
On the other hand, The Guardian explains that brewing beer from recycled water is an unusual approach but a growing number of craft breweries in the US are finding new ways to reduce their environmental footprint. This is not something new and it's not only Half Moon Brewing Company that is doing the environment a favor.
For example, Weak wort, a type of sugar wastewater generated by Colorado-based Avery Brewing Co, will be donated to the city of Boulder for use in its wastewater treatment plant to break down nitrogen.
Other craft breweries, such as Lagunitas Brewing Company and Bear Republic Brewing Co. in Sonoma County, California, are using a new onsite wastewater treatment system housed in a shipping container. These are just some of the environmental initiatives done by beer breweries in California.
At the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium in 2015, Cambrian Innovation's Industrial Executive Baji Gobburi explained that a Boston-based startup developed Ecovolt system that will help solve water resource challenges for food and beverage facilities around the country. Ecovolt is is powered by electrically active bacteria that use anaerobic digestion to scrub the breweries' wastewater of up to 90% of pollutants.
According to SF Gate, the blind tasting passed the beer taste test using recycled wastewater for beer during the Annual Meeting of The Minds, an event where the future of urban sustainability is reviewed in October 2015.
The said blind tasting was an attempt by Maverick's Brewing Co., an affiliate of Half Moon Bay Brewing Co., to bring attention to the importance of using wastewater as a valuable resource for beer.
