This Brewery's New Beer Is Made With Recycled Shower Water

A San Francisco water treatment company has partnered with a local brewery to produce a beer made from recycled waste water.

Epic Cleantec teamed with Devil's Canyon Brewing Co. to create a lager called Epic OneWater Brew. It’s described as a Kölsch-style ale—crisp, light, of German origin—and is made using recycled greywater from Fifteen Fifty, a 40-story luxury apartment complex in the city.

Devil’s Canyon described the beer as “super clean, with a great nose and a touch of malty sweetness.”

Fifteen Fifty’s greywater reuse system recycles 2.75 million gallons per year and is the first approved and operational greywater reuse system in San Francisco. Greywater used for the brew is sourced from the building’s laundry and shower systems.

“Buildings globally use 14 percent of all potable water," Epic Cleantec CEO and co-founder Aaron Tartakovsky told CNN. “Almost no buildings reuse that water—that's what we're trying to change.”

OneWater Brew is not yet for sale, however, due to local regulations which prohibit the use of waste water in commercial beverages. However, some states such as California and Texas do allow potable reuse of wastewater. Other states, such as Maryland and Florida, are currently updating their waste water regulations.

Last year, researchers at Stanford University found that recycled water is often cleaner than water from ground or river sources. This is due, in part, to the rigorous filtration processes recycled water is subject to.

Tartakovsky admitted that while Cleantec initially didn't envision selling the beverage, that might be changing. They are currently negotiating with breweries around the world to offer OneWater on their menus.

"We ended up producing just over 7,000 cans, not as a commercial product, but as an educational effort. But frankly, we did not anticipate the tremendous response that we saw," Tartakovsky marveled.