Wastewater Beer Aims To Help Quench US Drought

With its golden hue and light fruity flavor, the beer being sipped by Aaron Tartakovsky looks and tastes just like many others.

But it contains an unusual ingredient: recycled wastewater from a San Francisco skyscraper.

The beverage was brewed to raise public awareness of the "untapped" potential of water sources that might seem unsavory at first glance, at a time when the American West is struggling with chronic drought exacerbated by global warming, explains Tartakovsky.

"Beer has brought people together basically since the dawn of human civilization," the boss of recycling company Epic Cleantec told AFP.

Manufacturing the drink is an "incredible medium" to show the general public that "in this age of climate change... recycled water is a really great way to make sure that our communities are secure for generations to come."

The beer uses water derived from the showers, sinks, and washing machines of a San Francisco apartment building containing 550 homes.

Epic Cleantec treats the building's wastewater in the basement, returning much of it to the 40 floors above to be reused in flushing toilets or the irrigation system.

California law prohibits redirecting the treated water to taps for drinking.

But once filtered, the water is transformed from a murky, thick gray to a crystal-clear liquid that will "meet or exceed federal drinking quality standards," says Tartakovsky.

To prove it, he has teamed up with a brewery to create Epic OneWater Brew, a drink inspired by German Kolsch beers._AFP