That’s what Milwaukee-based homebrew enthusiast Theera Rastasarn may eventually hope to offer the risk-taking, beer-slugging world after he made his own wheat ale with wastewater from his local sewer plant. Yep, you read that right: That’s homebrew from home sludge. MORE: The Incredibly Awesome Way Beer Can Lower Your Cancer RIsk While this wonder brew won’t be available on tap at your local pub anytime soon, this wastewater engineer—that’s literally Rastasarn’s day job at Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources—did manage to wow Milwaukee’s Lakefront Brewery with the taste of his sewer ale. According to the microbrewery, Rastasan’s sludge suds was one one of the best-tasting homebrews they’ve ever tried. Sh*t, dude. How can a beer be made from wastewater? Thanks to the bacteria-killing brewing process, the ale is surprisingly harmless. “No pathogen known to man can grow in beer,” Lakefront Brewery president Russ Klisch recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of Rastasarn’s efforts. MORE: The Scary Toxin In Beer Those efforts included using wastewater that hadn’t gone through its final cleaning process, meaning that, if his brewing process ever goes mainstream, Rastasarn’s take on beer-making could be a potential way to use treated water that can end up polluting rivers and oceans. To turn that wastewater into something clean enough to drink, Rastasarn purified it. And then, to be 100 percent sure the water wasn’t going to accidentally poison anyone, he asked his wife for a $200 Christmas present: to have the water tested. After his little test came back negative, Rastasarn went ahead with the brew, opting to make a golden-colored wheat ale to keep the stuff from looking dark—or too much like sewage. Still, he paid homage to the beer’s water source with its name: Activated Sludge Wheat Ale, with a radioactive symbol on the label to boot. MORE: Gluten-Removed Beer: The Best Thing Ever?
