4 ms·
"To demonstrate its technology, Epic Cleantec, a water recycling company, has even brewed a beer called Epic OneWater Brew with purified graywater from a 40-sto
by pmoriarty 3y ago
"To demonstrate its technology, Epic Cleantec, a water recycling company, has even brewed a beer called Epic OneWater Brew with purified graywater from a 40-story San Francisco apartment building."
I've got to say that this beer would not be high on my list of beers to try.
- WJW 3y agoPretty much all beer is made with recycled water though, it's just that usually the recycling process takes much longer and with a detour through the ocean and some clouds. As long as the water is chemically identical to what you'd get from a river or something like that I don't really care what they make my beers out of tbh.
- rolisz 3y agoI think that detour through the ocean and the clouds can make quite a difference in the outcome...
- ninkendo 3y agoHence “as long as it’s chemically identical” (which it absolutely can be)… as in, it really doesn’t make a difference in the end.
- tourmalinetaco 3y agoAlthough, if its main selling point is “made with greywater”, maybe its just not that great of a drink regardless of the water used.
- viraptor 3y agoI'm not sure how much difference there is before you hit the artificial filtering/cleaning system. The detour through the ocean and clouds may turn out to include filtering through a decomposing body of a raccoon right before you get the water into the production system.
- hinkley 3y agoBeer is made from distilled water, via solar distillation. Some of it is made from water that was then triple filtered. Through soil, through miles of stone, and then by the brewery. And then it’s boiled, and chemically treated with alcohol.
- chpatrick 3y agoI saw an interview with a brewmaster and he said whether a beer is made of spring water or anything else is kind of BS because they can make water with whatever properties they want, it's not rocket science.
- fastball 3y agoDistilling/deionizing water is indeed quite trivial. But I personally know a beer brewer that was "remineralizing" water to a certain specification, and at some point they stopped because it was far too expensive. So I'm not so sure about the claim that people can make water with whatever properties they want, at least not in a way that is broadly economically viable.
- wil421 3y agoIf you can’t build your brewery or distillery near natural source of mineralized water then you should probably brew something else. Re-mineralizing sounds more expensive than trucking in water.
- bjacokes 3y agoAdjusting water chemistry is extremely prevalent in brewing. For example, if you've ever had a hazy IPA, part of the softer bitterness comes from high levels of chloride in the water. The cost of common brewing salts (gypsum, calcium chloride, etc) is a small fraction of a penny per beer. I'm guessing that the beer brewer you spoke with was talking about the cost of buying distilled or RO water, as opposed to the cost of the water adjustment itself. It's probably a lot more economical if you're cleaning and reusing graywater, vs. trucking in distilled water, or running municipal water through an RO filter and essentially paying twice for water treatment.
- jerrysievert 3y agowater adjustment is quite cheap - I keep "mineral water" on tap at home. it's a mixture of gypsum, calcium carbonate and epsom salt, conveniently pre-packaged as Burton salts. I use 1/4tsp per gallon of distilled water. the expensive part is the distilled water (even more-so than the co2 used to carbonate it).