Ever wanted to drink a beer that used to be part wastewater? You may get that chance soon.
Oregon's craft beer obsession expanded with the second annual Pure Water Brew Competition, which took place at the Raccoon Lodge in Beaverton Saturday.
The competition featured beer brewed by members of Oregon's oldest home brew club. All of the beer was made from wastewater supplied by Hillsboro-based Clean Water Services of Washington County.
The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission voted unanimously in April to allow Clean Water Services to use recycled sewage for brewing beer.
The water goes through a stringent purification process featuring ultra-filtration, reverse osmosis and enhanced oxidation.
This treatment not only takes water purification to another level, it gives the brewers a little extra room for creativity.
"The reason brewers like it is that it's a blank palette," said Mark Jockers from Clean Water Services. Many brewers add minerals to the water, which like yeast, grain and hops, affects the taste of the beer.
This year, there were 25 beer entries in the competition. Here's a list of the winners and the beers they brewed:
1st place - Dean Ehnes, German Pilsner
2nd place - Jenn McPoland, Cascadian Dark Ale
3rd place - Douglas Franz, Belgian Pale Ale
4th place - Will Minderhout, Munich Helles
Christina Belasco
/The 2nd annual Pure Water Brew competition took place at the Raccoon Lodge in Beaverton this Saturday.
Christina Belasco
/The event featured brewers from the Oregon Brew Crew - Oregon's oldest home brewing club, and all the beer was made from water that had been purified from wastewater.
Christina Belasco
/The event took place at the Raccoon Lodge in Beaverton, OR.
Christina Belasco
/Judges for the competition raised their hands as they prepared to begin tasting the beer.
Christina Belasco
/A judge smelled the beer before tasting it.
Christina Belasco
/For the final round of judging there were only three judges who tasted 10 beers in total.
Christina Belasco
/There were 25 total beers entered and two rounds of judging.
Christina Belasco
/The setup from the judges' table of finalists. The winning beer was a German Pilsner.
Copyright 2015 Oregon Public Broadcasting
