SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Scottsdale Water has partnered with several local breweries to educate people on recycled water and building sustainability during the One Water Brewing Showcase this weekend.
The challenge the city utility gave to the breweries was to create a beer using ultra-purified, recycled water. In its final form, beer is more than 90% water.
Walter Station Brewery in South Phoenix came up with an American-style pale ale.
"We wanted to make the beer very light because we wanted to showcase the quality of the water," said owner Jim Erickson. "We didn't want to make a big, heavy, or dark beer."
Scottsdale Water Public Information Officer Valerie Schneider explained the extensive process the city's wastewater goes through to become drinkable.
"We purify this to an A-plus standard and then we go even several steps farther and we do things like ultra-purification, UV," Schneider said. "We take this water and we purify it so much that the brewers have to add in elements to it."
After recycled water is treated, it undergoes several more purifying processes: ozonation, membrane ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet photolysis. The final product results in a water quality that exceeds even bottled water.
Scottsdale Water is the only facility in the state to offer this water resource, although right now they can only use it for sampling or beverage event purposes.
Eventually, the city's goal is to use recycled water for tap water.
"It's a really great water to make beer with," said Erickson.
Scott Kuskowski over at Uncle Bear's Brewery in Scottsdale agrees. His brewery came up with a hibiscus-infused traditional west coast style IPA for the showcase.
"We just thought with the hibiscus, Scottsdale being real flowery and pretty, we kind of figured we'd go with a color there, kind of give it that pink hue," Kuskowski said.
Taste and style aside, there is a bigger concern here looming over these breweries.
"It is of paramount importance for any brewery right now to get involved in water conservation and sustainability practices in any way that they can," said Erickson.
"We're going to have supply shortages here with water, so why are we not taking what we have here available and reusing it," said Kuskowski.
While both brewers said customers have been mostly accepting of the idea of drinking reused water, all they ask of skeptics is: don't knock it until you try it.
"Once they taste the beer, we make believers out of them right away," said Erickson. "It doesn't take long."
Partnering breweries for the event include:
- AZ Wilderness Brewing Co.
- Desert Monks Brewing Co.
- Fate Brewing Co.
- Four Peaks Brewing Co.
- Goldwater Brewing Co.
- North Mountain Brewing
- O.H.S.O. Brewery
- Uncle Bear’s Brewery
- Walter Station Brewery
The showcase runs Nov. 4 and 5 starting at 6 p.m. each night.
It will be at the Soleri Bridge on the Scottsdale Waterfront during Canal Convergence.
It is free to attend, but there is an option to buy samples.
Up to five breweries will be participating each night.
RELATED: Here’s what you need to know about the 2022 'Canal Convergence' in Scottsdale
