Beer made from recycled wastewater passes taste test

Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle From left, Brandon Cono and Wendell Smith, bartenders at the Annual...

It was a tough call, but Hugo Von Meijenfeldt thought he detected a hint of astronaut wastewater in the beer that he had just gulped.

The consul general for the Netherlands — who, as representative of the second-largest exporter of beer in the world, purports to know his way around a brewery — declared with some authority that the robust brew he had just tasted was the one made out of recycled wastewater supplied by NASA.

He was wrong.

“I liked the one that was less hoppy, which I thought was not the recycled beer,” said Von Meijenfeldt, one of two people on a five-judge panel at the Meeting of the Minds sustainability convention taste test in Richmond on Thursday who couldn’t tell one potation from the other.

The blind tasting was an attempt by Maverick’s Brewing Co., an affiliate of Half Moon Bay Brewing Co., to bring attention to the importance of using wastewater as a resource and combat what water officials call the “yuck factor.” The event was held in front of more than 400 leaders from 15 countries during an all-day conference at Richmond’s Craneway Pavilion to discuss various urban sustainability projects.

The prospect of treating sewer water and redirecting it back into faucets is considered by many the future of California. Such recycling, which involves treating what washes down the drain until it is pure, would save hundreds of billions of gallons that is now dumped into the Pacific Ocean annually.

Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle Adam Lenz, a member of the Annual Meeting of The Minds, an event...

“I really wanted to showcase the value of recycling water and get the public’s attention,” said Russ Drinker, an architect and trustee for Sustainable Silicon Valley, who spearheaded the recycled beer project. “Going back to the Phoenicians, beer was the way they created safe water because brewing it requires boiling it.”

Illegal in California

Drinker said his work in Singapore and in Saudi Arabia, which recycle virtually all of their wastewater, convinced him of its efficiency and showed him how out of the loop California and the rest of the United States are on the technology. It is currently illegal in California for water districts to send recycled water directly through the tap or for merchants to sell products that use it.

“I was surprised and a little angry that California does not recycle its water, especially in the context of this drought,” he said. “To me, it was the most obvious source of water, and once you have it, it is a really valuable asset.”

Drinker recruited Lenny Mendonca, owner of the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co., who liked the idea of the recycled beer tasting. The problem was to find a source of wastewater. Drinker knew someone at NASA, which has long used recycled urine in space, and persuaded agency officials to supply Mendonca with gray water — the flow from sinks, showers and washing machines — from one of its facilities.

Tastes ‘great’

There was no denying from the judges Thursday that the zesty concoction created from the space agency water warranted serious consideration — it was so good, in fact, that several jokesters in the audience stopped referring to it as “I Pee A Beer” after they tasted it.

“I thought it tasted great. It was delicious,” said beer judge Jennifer Biesty, the chef and owner of Shakewell, a Mediterranean-style restaurant in Oakland.

On a hunch, she correctly picked out the recycled beer because it was less hoppy and bitter than the other IPA she quaffed down. “I actually liked the recycled one better,” she said.

Biesty said she would happily serve beer made out of recycled water in her restaurant if it were legal.

Two water districts in the Bay Area — the Dublin San Ramon Services District and the Santa Clara Valley Water District — are testing systems that filter sewer water and purify it to the point that it can be consumed by the public. Orange County has a system in place that recycles 100 million gallons of wastewater a day — enough to quench the thirst of 850,000 people — by treating it and injecting it into aquifers.

Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle From left, Wendell Smith and Brandon Cono, bartenders at the Annual...

The problem is that California does not allow the public to drink recycled water directly out of a treatment plant, a rule that exists largely because of the yuck factor. Recycled water currently has to be injected into the aquifer and mixed with groundwater before it can be pumped up and used as drinking water. The process of leaching through the ground naturally cleanses water, but water officials say it isn’t needed because of advanced technology.

Change sought in law

Legislation has been introduced to make it legal to purify sewer water and send it right back to consumers. The California Water Resources Control Board is expected to issue a report in December on the feasibility of such a system.

“I think it’s an awesome concept,” Biesty said. “It makes sense, especially with the drought and global warming.”

Mendonca, who is allowed to use his recycled beer only for free tastings, said that the new brew is good enough to sell and that the water used to make it should be available to the public.

Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle Ken Homer takes his first sip of a recycled grey water beer being...

“If people can drink a beer that tastes good, why not drink the water,” Mendonca said, explaining that all the water on Earth has been recycled from the beginning of time. “This is not something new. It’s back to the future.”

Von Meijenfeldt, whose diplomatic post covers 13 Western states, including California, is expected to keep his job despite confessing to a preference for craft beer over Heineken. He was among a large crowd who stayed after the conference to have another go at the astronaut ale.

“I chose the wrong one for the wrong reasons,” said the Dutchman, as he slurped the heady hooch, “but two times wrong makes for a positive.”

Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite.