SAN FRANCISCO—In an effort to accommodate the California drought, one brewery is creating an innovative way to conserve California water by using recycled water.
Mavericks Brewing Company is creating a prototype of their award-winning Tunnel Vision IPA, using a specially brewed tactic made from recycled water. Co-owner and co-founder of Mavericks, Lenny Mendonca, stated that the beer is brewed using the same recipe, with the only variation being 100 percent high purity recycled water, sourced from NASA.
Mendonca anticipates that one of the greatest marketing hurdles will be the consumer’s perception of safety regarding the product. Mendonca stated that the recycled water is safe to drink using proven water purification technologies that have been used around the world.
According to California’s health and safety codes, the beer is not allowed to be sold to the general public. Mavericks was granted approval to showcase their product and provide complimentary samples at the Coastside Brewfest located at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company on Saturday, October 24.
On the five-judge panel of the Mavericks taste test, all but one judge could not tell the recycled brew from the remainder of the conventional IPAs. Several of the judges agreed that the Mavericks recycled brew tasted “less hoppy” than many of the other beers, but that made the beer more enjoyable.
According to the California state water resources control board, the Recycled Water Policy will be evaluated by December 2015 to assess approved uses, and whether the city’s waste water sources can be purified to meet Water Code Section 13050(n) state and federal water quality laws. If the treatment process passes legislation standards, the use of reusing re-treated sewer water is said to be a prospective future of California’s water consumption, and would save billions of gallons of water from being dumped into the ocean each year.
As it stands, the Bay Area has two water treatment centers that are testing water purification systems. The Dublin San Ramon Services District and the Santa Clara Valley Water District are in the midst of testing filtration systems to purify sewer water and water from storm drains in hopes that it will be able to be consumed by the public. In Southern California, Orange County has implemented a system that recycles the county’s waste-water, equating to approximately 100 million gallons of water per day.
