How bad do you want a beer?

[Beer-lord]

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2016/07/ ... into-beer/
Mankind has been turning beer into urine for centuries.

Leave it to science to find a way to reverse that process.

Scientists at Belgium’s University of Ghent say they’ve created a machine that turns urine into potable water, and fertilizer, using solar energy. The scientists have since crafted small batches of Belgian ale from the recycled water.


Scientists demonstrate how the solar-powered water waste recycling machine converts urine to potable fluid. (Reuters)

"We call it from sewer to brewer," Sebastiaan Derese, one of the researchers from the University of Ghent, told Reuters. "We're able to recover fertiliser and drinking water from urine using just a simple process and solar energy."

The machine collects urine in a big tank which is then heated in a solar-powered boiler. As the heated water evaporates it passes through a membrane, which separates the H2O from nutrients like phosphorous and nitrogen. Those nutrients can then be used to enrich fertilizers for plants.The water is then diverted to a separate tank.

Since the system requires no electricity, the researchers hope it can be used to provide clean drinking water for people in developing countries. According to Derese, the process could help organize agriculture in a more sustainable way throughout many rural communities more susceptible to drought.

But the system can also be used for commercial purposes to quickly purify water where there are a lot of people—who have to go to the bathroom a lot—like sports stadiums, shopping malls and airports.

Scientists recently presented the machine at a 10-day music and theatre festival in central Ghent, using the slogan #peeforscience, according to the New York Daily News.

The team recycled 1,000 liters of water from urine collected at the event. Now the scientists plan to use that water to brew even more of their signature "Brewer to Sewer" beer.

So the next time you take a swig of beer and think to yourself, “this tastes like warm p---,” you might just be providing an accurate flavor profile.

In March, California's Half Moon Bay Brewing Company began making small batches of its popular Mavericks Tunnel Vision IPA with recycled waste water—known to environmentalists as gray water (any used water not from toilets) as a partial solution to the state's drought problem.

[Whamolagan]

i am sure it is fine,but I am not really ready to jump on that bandwagon quite yet. Talk to me when I decide to walk to burning man.....never gonna happen

[ScrewyBrewer]

Some years ago I had the good fortune to work in a sewerage treatment plant, I know, I know. The plant manger was very excited to show us through the entire treatment process from cesspool to glass full of sparking clear water. Water that he said was in fact pure enough to drink, so I had to ask him. "Is it clean enough for you to drink too?" He took a minute to process my question then lifted the glass to his lips and replied "well no." We all just had a really good laugh and went back to work, true story.

[philm00x]

They should've made an IPeeA...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bpgreen]

If you think about it, all of our sewage gets recycled into drinking water eventually. It's just a matter of how soon it happens. For the most part, sewage is treated, then it goes into the nearest river. Guess where cities downstream get their water? In some cases, it is spread out and left to evaporate, and it eventually falls as rain.

I think there are some arid areas where they're doing more active reclamation and recycling water more actively, but they're probably not saying a lot about it publicly. But if you live in a state that is short on water (CA, NV, UT, CO come to mind), I'd be surprised if there's no recycled water in your stream.

[MadBrewer]

I dont want one that bad.

[mashani]

Where do you think your pee goes? Eventually back into your water supply. Oh and their is fish pee in that too. And fish poop. And bird poop. And all sorts of other fun things like rotting animal corpses, and perhaps Jimmy Hoffa wearing cement shoes... that's why it is treated. Hell, where Steve and I live if there is a big storm, every kind of human and animal and other biological waste possible ends up getting dumped directly into the eerie lake without pre-treatment due to our ancient combined storm/sanitary sewer system. It can become so full of *&T that it shuts down beaches. But it gets treated on the way back in and we drink it and make beer from it.

Steve has made award winning beers with that same previously feces laden water. BigPapaG too, although I don't know if Buffalo has quite as bad of a situation.

So... this was treated too? The only special thing about it is that it's solar powered and doesn't involve a whole bunch of other processes. Which is cool.

You never saw the brewing show where they made beer from "duck poop pond water"? Without any treatment first! Folks actually liked the resulting beer.

So, I am not afraid of their Belgian beer. I'd try it.

[Beer-lord]

Thanks so very much for putting this so simply. I will drink s glass a water without making funny faces ever again. [emoji3]

[MadBrewer]

I'm sure we all understand the shit water/clean water cycle, but a direct pee water beer still isn't exactly appealing to me.

On the flip side, it's things like this that lead to helping water deprived areas like it mentions in the article so that is always interesting.