Using Craft Beer to Advance Water Reuse

A Portland-area utility is taking recycled water to new heights with Pure Water Brew – a project of Clean Water Services, the water resources management utility for more than 560,000 residents of the Tualatin River Watershed.

Clean Water Services produces high-quality potable water and provides it to Oregon brewers to make craft beer. The beer is so good it has been entered in national tasting competitions. In fact, there have been competitions solely among brewers who use water from DPR programs.

These competitions and other major public events featuring “sewage brewage” create “an embodied and unforgettable experience for industry leaders of literally tasting what the future might hold,” according to a One Water Spotlight article on the U.S. Water Alliance website.

“If you want to gain the confidence of the public; if you want them to understand the value of water; if you want them to support the activities that we do, you have to be creative, you have to be innovative,” said Roy Rogers, Washington County Commissioner and Clean Water Services Board Member. “I firmly believe that there isn’t a utility in this country who couldn’t do the same thing if they had the courage and the will to do it.”