Craft Brewers Make Beer With Recycled Water for Competition

via NBC San Diego   by Brie Stimson and Alex Presha

It’s about time someone created a competition that brings environmentalism and beer drinking together.

The Pure Brew San Diego Beer Competition, held at the Westin in downtown Sunday evening, pitted 15 different craft beers against one another – the catch is they’re all made of recycled water. Recycled water is wastewater that has been purified so it can be repurposed. Several hundred people showed up to the competition to taste the beers and the vote on their favorite.

“Well I like the light stuff. Personally, I don’t normally go for heavy beers. So I haven’t checked it all out, but I’m hoping there’s something like that for me to taste,” said Jennifer West of Water Reuse California.

Organizers say the point of the competition is to show off the quality of San Diego’s recycled water.

All the breweries that participated are part of the Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity, a local group dedicated to the promotion of homebrewing.

Brewers used about 10 gallons of water provided by the city to make their brews. The competition consisted of IPAs and Pale Ales.

“When breweries in San Diego can promote something like recycled water, it has the potential to really change the minds of the typical consumer,” said Dominic Fountain, president of QUAFF.

The City plans to build a new water recycling facility in 2018. It will make 30 million gallons of water per day by the time it comes on line in 2021, and organizers say the competition’s purpose is to introduce San Diegans to recycled water’s many uses.

And as the deputy director with Public Utilities Brent Edison tells NBC 7, the city thought using craft beers here would go a long way in breaking the stigma associated with recycled water.

“By partnering with home breweries … we’re able to provide high quality beers that people can consume,” Edison says.

Dan Baker’s “So Juicy” IPRA took home first place. That came with a cash prize of $500.