In 2019 we’ve gotten a sneak peak at the diet of the future, and it looks scrumptious: cockroach purée washed down with toilet water beer.
In a piece published on Wednesday by CNET, senior associate editor Andrew Gebhart reported earnestly on his drinking experience with Reuse Brew, an experimental German beer created using recycled sewer water.
“In my mind, I knew it would be sanitized and would likely taste pretty good, but it still took every ounce of willpower I had to take that first sip. I mean, it’s not everyday you drink poop beer,” Gebhart says.
The idea of ingesting fluids that were once polluted with human waste would likely have seemed preposterous and bizarre a decade ago, but as concern mounts over climate change and resource scarcity, it seems the West is eager to start work on Soylent Green-styled solutions.
From the CNET article:
I’m in Berlin for the IFA tech show this week and I had just toured one of the city’s wastewater facilities. This particular wastewater plant partnered with a water technology company called Xylem to make Reuse Brew as part of a special project to raise public awareness and public interest in recycled water. While touring the plant, I had a chance to see the water at all stages of purification, including the open reservoirs of chunky, feces-filled sludge.
The smell during the first part of the tour was one of the most intensely awful things I’ve ever experienced. I felt like I was in a room in which a million people had just gone to the bathroom, and that image isn’t far from the truth, as the facility treats the wastewater for 1.3 million Berlin residents.
Despite the understandable revulsion Gebhart experienced whilst observing this process, he reported positively on the results it produced.
On some level, I knew the water was clean, but my hands shook anyway. I couldn’t get that smell out of my mind as I brought the beer to my lips.
I shouldn’t have worried so much. The beer was great. It was a malty brown ale with nicely balanced hops and carbonation. It was brewed as a traditional German Altbier. While the color didn’t help given the circumstances, if I had tried it in a bar, I would have had a couple of glasses. As it stands, I drank the very last bottle in existence and was satisfied by every sip.
The piece was titled “I drank beer made from recycled toilet water — and it tasted great.”
National File has previously reported on the media’s obsession with pushing dystopian cuisine on the masses. “Behind The Media’s Obsession With Eating Bugs — And Cannibalism” takes a deeper dive into this unsettling topic.
