Bill Gates-Backed ‘Wastewater Beer’ May Soon Hit the Market — But Federal Regulations Stand in Its Way
(Photo: Epic Cleantec)
From “super cows” to genetically engineered mosquitos, Bill Gates has dipped his toes into a wide range of futuristic, occasionally unbelievable tech.
A new environmentally conscious beer funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge” promises to up the ante. The beer, named Epic OneWater Brew, is made from recycled shower, laundry and sink water.
The perplexing Kölsch-style ale is the brainchild of San Francisco-based water reuse company Epic Cleantec and Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company. To produce the beer, wastewater from a 40-story apartment complex is fed through “ultrafiltration membranes,” disinfected with ultraviolet light then tested for quality by a third-party lab.
In an interview with CNBC, Epic Cleantec CEO Aaron Tartakovsky said: “Water is omnipresent in all of our lives. It grows the food we eat, we use it to bathe, cook and clean … and yet, we know so little about how water works, how it gets to our taps and where the wastewater goes.”
“We are trying to amplify the water story to tell it in a different way. And in this case, we use the medium of beer to tell that story,” he continued.
Tartakovsky assures the public that the beer is perfectly safe to drink. Despite this, state and federal regulations currently forbid the commercial distribution of recycled sewage water.
States like Florida, Colorado and Texas are pushing to have those regulations changed. For the time being, however, Epic OneWater Brew can only be disturbed as free samples within its homestate of California.
Epic OneWater Brew joins the likes of Revival Lager, Full Circle Pale Ale and Reuse Brew, fully formed wastewater beer brands that exist in a hazy legal limbo as the category is rapidly being defined before our eyes.
Last December, East Village Brewing Company teamed up with the San Diego International Airport to release a pair of beers made with purified condensate from the airport’s A/C system. Dubbed “Hoppy Travels IPA” and “Pre-Flight Pils,” the duo of chilly libations was sold on tap within several of the airport’s terminals (as it turns out, air conditioning condensate is not classified as wastewater).
Pre-Flight Pils, said to boast an aroma of freshly baked bread, lemon apricot. (Photo: The East Village Brewing Company)
Though this trend could easily be dismissed as a gimmick, expect to see a lot more of it in the coming decades.
As concerns over pollution and sustainability grow, wastewater reuse (politely known as “water reclamation”) has become a focal point of advocacy efforts. The World Water Council projects that recycled sewage water will become a normalized drinking source worldwide within the next 20 years.
What’s more, Bill Gates purchased a nearly $1 billion stake in Heineken Beer last February. As the market shifts and alcohol giants are forced to readjust, it’s quite possible that your favorite beer brand may soon be produced from your sewage.
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