Dive Brief:
- Clean Water Services, an Oregon wastewater treatment company, is challenging home brewers from the Oregon Brew Crew to produce beer made with traditional ingredients and one not so traditional — wastewater.
- About 300 gallons of highly purified water will be available for brew club members. The water will go through a process of ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and oxidation.
- The winning brewer pockets $100, second through sixth collects $50. The winning beers will not be sold, but will appear at an international water conference to be held in Chicago.
Dive Insight:
The company says it wants to highlight the impact advanced filtration systems can have on vital resources. These are not unchartered waters for Clean Water Services, which also sponsored a contest to make beer from river water. As larger populations stress the water supply, not just in Oregon, but nationwide, creative solutions are being found. It is not a far stretch to reuse wastewater for farming, but companies are being innovative and turning beer waste into biogas and using landfill waste for beer carbonation.