Monday, September 17, 2018
Welcome to Denver, Beer World. Please Enjoy Our Recycled Urine.
We Coloradans are conservationists.
Sometimes that involves conserving our environment. Sometimes that involves conserving our beer and making sure we make the most out of it. And lately, that involves a little of both of those ideas.
To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Denver Water earlier this year released a beer made with Declaration Brewing that came from its PureWater Colorado Demonstration Project, a water purification system that cleans the water coming from our homes so that it's safe to drink. In this case, it not only was looking to prove that H20 could be consumed again, but that it could be added to hops and yeast in order to achieve something drinkable in the vain of the liquid all residents like to consume - namely, beer.
Centurion is a pilsner that is a product of that unusual collaboration - a 4.9% ABV , slightly cloudy project that features a significant German hop bite, as well as a slightly medicinal malt body. What it does not have, it's fair to say, is any hint of urine in its nose or body, so far as this non-urine-drinking beer guy can tell.
The collaboration won't rewrite the beer recipe book, but it also won't make the tens of thousands of people who are streaming into Denver for Great American Beer Festival think it is highly inappropriate. And while there are a number of other pilsners I would recommend first - Rockyard Brewing's Primadonna Pilsner is earning its raves as something smooth and tasty - it also won't make you regret trying it.
To be sure, this is not the first time a brewer has made conservation of water a central part of its appeal to Denver residents, though Declaration is the first brewer that has done it in this way.
Cerveza Imperial last summer sent to Denver what it called the world's first water-positive beer - a brew that puts more water back into the environment than it took out. The Costa Rican brewer partnered with the Colorado Water Trust to restore the Yampa River for every beer sold in this city. Unfortunately, those who wanted to make this kind of environmental gift still had to drink a beer that, at its best in Silver form, was crisp but largely tasteless, but at its worst in standard form offered a wet corn taste that was both stale and off-putting.
Declaration, however, made 80 barrels of a beer you could say inspired you to drink recycle urine - maybe with the caveat that you didn't know exactly what you were drinking. And it at least makes you think that science is getting to the point where that scene from "Water World" where Kevin Costner recycles and drinks his own urine isn't that far in the future - and is a lot less bleak in taste than that scene may have led us to believe.
We Coloradans are conservationists.
Sometimes that involves conserving our environment. Sometimes that involves conserving our beer and making sure we make the most out of it. And lately, that involves a little of both of those ideas.To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Denver Water earlier this year released a beer made with Declaration Brewing that came from its PureWater Colorado Demonstration Project, a water purification system that cleans the water coming from our homes so that it's safe to drink. In this case, it not only was looking to prove that H20 could be consumed again, but that it could be added to hops and yeast in order to achieve something drinkable in the vain of the liquid all residents like to consume - namely, beer.
Centurion is a pilsner that is a product of that unusual collaboration - a 4.9% ABV , slightly cloudy project that features a significant German hop bite, as well as a slightly medicinal malt body. What it does not have, it's fair to say, is any hint of urine in its nose or body, so far as this non-urine-drinking beer guy can tell.
The collaboration won't rewrite the beer recipe book, but it also won't make the tens of thousands of people who are streaming into Denver for Great American Beer Festival think it is highly inappropriate. And while there are a number of other pilsners I would recommend first - Rockyard Brewing's Primadonna Pilsner is earning its raves as something smooth and tasty - it also won't make you regret trying it.To be sure, this is not the first time a brewer has made conservation of water a central part of its appeal to Denver residents, though Declaration is the first brewer that has done it in this way.
Cerveza Imperial last summer sent to Denver what it called the world's first water-positive beer - a brew that puts more water back into the environment than it took out. The Costa Rican brewer partnered with the Colorado Water Trust to restore the Yampa River for every beer sold in this city. Unfortunately, those who wanted to make this kind of environmental gift still had to drink a beer that, at its best in Silver form, was crisp but largely tasteless, but at its worst in standard form offered a wet corn taste that was both stale and off-putting.
Declaration, however, made 80 barrels of a beer you could say inspired you to drink recycle urine - maybe with the caveat that you didn't know exactly what you were drinking. And it at least makes you think that science is getting to the point where that scene from "Water World" where Kevin Costner recycles and drinks his own urine isn't that far in the future - and is a lot less bleak in taste than that scene may have led us to believe.
Labels: Cerveza Imperial, Declaration Brewing, Denver Water, Great American Beer Festival, pilsner, Rockyard Brewery, Water reuse
