It’s Time to Get Used to Drinking Recycled Wastewater
North American cities are preparing to source water from toilets and sinks
In August 2020, a group of 50 beer lovers in Calgary—along with drinkers videoconferenced in from Edmonton and Ottawa — had a communal sip of a limited-edition brew of Village Brewery’s Blonde. This one-off was made from purified water that had only recently been wastewater flowing from the city’s toilets and sinks.
“There wasn’t a comment from a single person who said that the beer tasted strange or funny,” says Leland Jackson, PhD, scientific director of Advancing Canadian Wastewater Assets, which runs research projects out of a Calgary wastewater treatment facility and partnered with Village Brewery and water tech company Xylem to make the beer. The water used by the brewers went through an additional four-step purification process after it was scooped from the treatment plant.
Some compared the ale with Village’s regular Blonde. “People were amazed that you could not tell the difference,” says Jackson, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Calgary who also brews his own dark ales at home (with regular water).
This quaff was not entirely about pleasing beer nerds—it was also illustrating the feasibility of direct potable…
