The beer served at the Canal Convergence Festival is made with recycled water from Scottsdale.
Scottsdale, Arizona — A good beer can be judged by many factors, including stylistic accuracy and technical merit. But pure water is always the heart of a good brew.
A panel of judges gathered at the Scottsdale Performing Arts Center judged five microbreweries vying for Best in Show at this year’s Scottsdale City Canal Convergence Festival. Each of the five beers offered different flavors and stouts, but they all had one thing in common.
Scottsdale Water Executive Director Brian Biesemeyer said: “Every beer tasted today by the jury and served at Canal Convergence is made with recycled water.
The City of Scottsdale runs its water through an advanced filtration method called ultrapure water.
“We take wastewater, treat it in a conventional wastewater treatment plant, then take the product effluent and run it through ultrafiltration, ozone, reverse osmosis and UV. [filtration] As an add-on treatment,” said Biesemeyer. “It’s called our advanced water treatment facility through which we produce drinking-quality water.”
It is irresistible water for beer lovers.
“There are some beer styles and brewers that start with reverse osmosis water that has basically all minerals removed, and then add different brewing salts and different things to the water to get the right profile of different minerals. and recreate the world’s beer styles,” said Dennis Mitchell, President of the Beer Judge Certification Program.
Mitchell and the other judges were unable to determine if there was anything wrong with the water used by the brewers in the competition. That’s what Mitchell notices.
“Water quality is a big part of the beer-making process,” Mitchell said.
The City of Scottsdale has no plans to use ultrapure water exclusively for brewing beer. They plan to incorporate that water into faucets in Scottsdale homes and businesses by 2024-2025.
“We live in the desert, and we see this as a way to ensure sustainable water resources in this wonderful desert where we live,” said Biesemeier.
Wet hop brews from Goldwater Brewery and Four Peaks Brewers won the Best in Show award and will be featured at the Canal Convergence Festival November 4-13 at the Scottsdale Waterfront.
RELATED: Arizona needs to not only weather drought, but prepare for coming floods, says SRP official
Related: Scottsdale has plans for population growth. But are you going to stand up?
speed up
Check out the latest news and stories on our 12News YouTube playlist here.
