One thing to know about people who brew beer: they are very picky about their water.

Clean, high-quality water is the most important ingredient in beer, making up 90 percent of its content. In fact, water was one of only four ingredients (along with barley, hops and yeast) that could be used under the Reinheitsgebot, the historic German law that governed the purity of beer.

The water used to make Pure Water Brew was cleaned at Clean Water Services’ Durham treatment facility in Tigard, Oregon, and then run through a high purity water treatment system. The process uses some of the same purification technologies and techniques used by premium bottled water companies.

In July, Clean Water Services gave the purified water to some of Oregon’s best homebrewers with a simple directive: Craft the best-tasting beer you can. The suds they produced are phenomenal and have taken full advantage of the purified water, using it as a blank canvas to showcase their brewing creativity.

Here’s the crazy thing: the concept of reusing water is nothing new. All water we use has at one point been consumed—and will be consumed again. The same water you drink from the faucet today (or from your can of LaCroix) is the same water that fell from the sky when dinosaurs walked the earth and the same water that filled the Mediterranean when Plato wrote The Republic.

A digital press kit, including photos, graphics, and broadcast-quality video of the purification process and Pure Water Brew competition is available at bit.ly/purewaterbrew.

Cheers!

“I firmly believe that there isn’t a utility in this country who couldn’t do the same thing if they had the courage and the will to do it.” –Roy Rogers, Washington County Commissioner/CWS Board Member

“There is no reason in the world to judge water by its history. We very much are focused on: What’s the quality of the water for the use to which it’s going to be put?” –Ken Kopocis, Deputy Assistant Director, US EPA Office of Water