Beer made from waste water?

[Willy]

Yikes. Thanks for the warning!
https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/b...er/FAE5X6FCZBE6RB6LEBHDI6HDRE/?outputType=amp

Wondering if this is a new way to add flaked corn? Hahaha

No I won't and wouldn't drink it.

 

[Broken Crow]

Now we know where @ismellweird is living!
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/remembering-ismellweird-this-november.696601/
...looks like he finally 'went pro'

 

[stamandster]

Yeah..... no. nope. In 10 years we'll wonder why a small subset of people has colon cancer in the Charlotte area.

 

[Agent]

"According to Charlotte Water, the wastewater is cleaned using “state-of-the-art carbon filtering, reverse osmosis, and advanced oxidation (Ozone + Ultraviolet treatment).”

Frankly, that's probably way more effort than goes into processing normal drinking water.

And that stuff is so salty...

 

[mac_1103]

"According to Charlotte Water, the wastewater is cleaned using “state-of-the-art carbon filtering, reverse osmosis, and advanced oxidation (Ozone + Ultraviolet treatment).”

Yeah, this water is probably about a billion times cleaner than what most of us drink every day.

 

[doug293cz]

Well, we are all brewing with recycled waste water already. I'd rather drink this than a beer brewed with Detroit water. My only concern is whether or not the treatment output testing is real-time enough to catch a system malfunction before inadequately treated water is released for reuse.

Brew on

 

[Bramling Cross]

I wouldn't turn up my nose at this. Considering what my yeast oxygen scavenged water smells like after I've let it do its overnight thing, I'm in no position to be throwing rocks.

 

[stamandster]

I brew with recycled beer

 

[stamandster]

Side note, seems this isn't a "new" initiative in the brewing space - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/boise-breweries-to-make-beer-from-recycled-wastewater.709798/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/from-sewer-to-beer-can.648252/

 

[wepeeler]

No thanks. There's a distillery by me that uses a local brewery's beer to make spirits, and they all taste bad. Like to the point where my dad, who will drink basically anything, was like NOPE. They aren't necessarily using bad batches of beer to make the spirits, but it sure tastes that way.

 

[mac_1103]

There's a distillery by me that uses a local brewery's beer to make spirits

Not sure I see how that has anything to do with this. Unless they're purifying the beer with carbon filtration, reverse osmosis and ozone/UV light.

 

[doug293cz]

No thanks. There's a distillery by me that uses a local brewery's beer to make spirits, and they all taste bad. Like to the point where my dad, who will drink basically anything, was like NOPE. They aren't necessarily using bad batches of beer to make the spirits, but it sure tastes that way.

Just like breweries that make bad beer, there are distilleries that make bad spirits. Also, spirits distilled from beer can have residual hop compounds that impart flavors people find objectionable in spirits. Amount of residual hop compounds will depend on type of still (pot vs. column) and the hoppiness of the starting beer.

Brew on

 

[PCABrewing]

Yikes. Thanks for the warning!
https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/b...er/FAE5X6FCZBE6RB6LEBHDI6HDRE/?outputType=amp

Wondering if this is a new way to add flaked corn? Hahaha

No I won't and wouldn't drink it.

This isn't a surprise.
Several years ago I was in London and I was told by my driver as we passed a treatment plant "that's where they process sewage back into the water supply". I don't know what the extent of that is or how to verify, but it is interesting to note that we passed a Fullers plant within a couple blocks.

There are examples of waste water made available to the public for consumption as far back as fifty years.
A northern Illinois treatment plant (tertiary treatment) had a tour available where they had a spigot that was used to fill samples for people to taste and smell. Word is that it was not-distinguishable from the water supply samples.
I don't think they ever made it a formal part of the water supply but they were obviously thinking about it fifty years ago.
The treatment challenge is bigger today.
Back then the tertiary plants focused on sediment and bacterium.
Today we have the bigger challenge of pharmaceuticals (including highly-toxic chemotherapy chemicals) that find their way into the wastewater stream after being processed by the human body, Unfortunately many aren't metabolized into compounds that the current treatment systems can remove or breakdown and those pass through the wastewater plants into our rivers and lakes.
So it is likely you are already drinking stuff way worse than poop.

 

[Bramling Cross]

As someone with a passing familiarity with the manufacture of semiconductors and other industrial processes that rely on pure water, the notion of "pure and natural" water rings a bit hollow to me.

As others have mentioned above, all water has been recycled at some point. A lot of it has been fetid, vile water at some point, a good deal of it has been excreted out of something or things.

What matters isn't where it has recently (or not so recently) been, what matters is its mineral content for beer making.

 

[Bramling Cross]

No thanks. There's a distillery by me that uses a local brewery's beer to make spirits, and they all taste bad. Like to the point where my dad, who will drink basically anything, was like NOPE. They aren't necessarily using bad batches of beer to make the spirits, but it sure tastes that way.

I don't know much about distilling, but I have been told that attempting to distill beer generally results in disaster because the hops compounds don't agree with the distilling process very much.

 

[lumpher]

If I want to drink beer that tastes like p..., I'll drink Bud Light...

 

[Bramling Cross]

If I want to drink beer that tastes like p..., I'll drink Bud Light...

It's phenomenally amazing stuff from a brewing standpoint, though.

Having adopted fizzy yellow swill as my COVID project, I can assure you it takes god-like brewing chops to make Bud Light. It took me three years to come out of that rabbit hole.

It's not for the faint hearted.

 

[shoengine]

Just like breweries that make bad beer, there are distilleries that make bad spirits. Also, spirits distilled from beer can have residual hop compounds that impart flavors people find objectionable in spirits. Amount of residual hop compounds will depend on type of still (pot vs. column) and the hoppiness of the starting beer.

Brew on

Place by where I live uses non-hopped wort from a local brewery. The gin tastes divine.

 

[lumpher]

It's phenomenally amazing stuff from a brewing standpoint, though.

Having adopted fizzy yellow swill as my COVID project, I can assure you it takes god-like brewing chops to make Bud Light. It took me three years to come out of that rabbit hole.

It's not for the faint hearted.

Yep, I know it's a real task to brew something like Bud Light that has no flavor or character to hide flaws, and takes real practice. "They" also say you have to get used to the taste of blood pudding, but I have no idea why you'd want to... if neighbors want pud light, I'll refill their glass when I'm done with mine

 

[Bramling Cross]

Yep, I know it's a real task to brew something like Bud Light that has no flavor or character to hide flaws, and takes real practice. "They" also say you have to get used to the taste of blood pudding, but I have no idea why you'd want to... if neighbors want pud light, I'll refill their glass when I'm done with mine

You raise a fair point.

I will suggest, however, that my more interesting beers have been elevated by my time spent writhing in the pig stye of fizzy yellow swill.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

I live 30 miles down river from the largest city in a neighboring state. They have a treatment plant that goes into a large creek that flows into a still larger creek. The larger creek flows into the river. The county I live in has a water treatment plant that draws water just south of where that creek dumps into the river!
So, I tell everyone that as long as the folks up north of us keep flushing their toilets, we will all have plenty of drinking, (and brewing) water! Cheers!

 

[marc1]

As someone with a passing familiarity with the manufacture of semiconductors and other industrial processes that rely on pure water, the notion of "pure and natural" water rings a bit hollow to me.

As others have mentioned above, all water has been recycled at some point. A lot of it has been fetid, vile water at some point, a good deal of it has been excreted out of something or things.

What matters isn't where it has recently (or not so recently) been, what matters is its mineral content for beer making.

Additionally, since water is created during combustion, there's a good chance that lots of the water you are drinking and using was actually something else entirely, chemically.

 

[doug293cz]

I live 30 miles down river from the largest city in a neighboring state. They have a treatment plant that goes into a large creek that flows into a still larger creek. The larger creek flows into the river. The county I live in has a water treatment plant that draws water just south of where that creek dumps into the river!
So, I tell everyone that as long as the folks up north of us keep flushing their toilets, we will all have plenty of drinking, (and brewing) water! Cheers!

I've always thought it would be a good idea to have a law that required municipal water intakes to be downstream of their waste water treatment plant outflow. Would help insure folks do things correctly.

Brew on

 

[Agent]

Joke's on you, as we are groundwater sourced! =D

But in all seriousness, some of the nutrient discharge limits make us debate running wastewater through an RO system anyway.

 

[Agent]

Nut brown anybody?

 

[shoengine]

Nut brown anybody?

View attachment 863237

That is where I feel everything bagels come from.

 

[burtom]

People here realize the on German cities the town crier would go through town telling to not s*** or p*** in the river the day before they drew water for brewing. Right?

 

[bike2brew]

Sorry about that. My water comes from a cave spring with a significant filtering. Mountain pure. Good water makes good beer. Any other flaws are my technical deficiency .

 

[bike2brew]

Throughout history human kind has fought with their neighbors, generally those up stream, over issues due to disease and water quality.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

Throughout history human kind has fought with their neighbors, generally those up stream, over issues due to disease and water quality.

Brings to mind the Southern concept of “branch kin”. Branch kin are two separate families where the upstream family pees in the branch, and the downstream family drinks out of it. That’s branch kin!