Scientists Just Turned Pee Into Water, Then Made Beer With It

In an interview with Munchies, a Belgian scientist discussed his latest venture of turning urine into beer and it all started with a truly noble cause.

The scientist’s, Arne Verliefde, initial goal with his partner Sebastiaan Derese was to turn pee into potable water to help farmers in developing countries fertilize their crops, totally commendable.

After they successfully did this and were able to extract desired nutrients from the urine using solar energy, they took it a step further and sent the “water” to a brewery to be turned into a beer.

Gross.

“The first version was based on recovering wastewater from a brewery. The second one was a step up: it was actually filtered wastewater from a municipal wastewater treatment plant. The third version is going to be the urine version, From Sewer to Brewer. And you could actually buy the second version of the beer at the festival.”

Verliefde explains their multiple attempts with the “beer” and have also used wastewater from a brewery, then from a wastewater plant before they used actual urine to extract water from for the brew.

These are three equally nauseating ideas.

They’ve tried their hand at the “Sewer to Brewer” idea several times and they tell Munchies that there are other people trying to turn urine into beer, and one of them has appropriately given it the name “From Piss to Pilsner.”

In the interview, Verliefde talks about how it actually tastes good resembling an amber and has about a 7% ABV.

Behold, extracted urine-water makes for quite a strong brew!

Verliefde adds that the brew will be available towards the end of this year, which is being produced by the home brewer in Belgium, De Wilde Brouwers. He says that the whole thing was “a gimmick and a bit of a social experiment” to see how willing people would be to drink the stuff, but their main goal was to help farmers in developing countries.

These mad scientists have a twisted idea of fun!

Source: Munchies