ReBrew Wastewater Challenge

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2025 issue of Zymurgy Magazine

By Chris Stovall

Let’s Not Call It Poo Brew

It all started five years ago when I received a call from beer writer/travel guru/BJCP judge Owen Ogletree. He asked if the Savannah Brewers League Homebrew Club might be interested in helping with a homebrew competition at the annual conference for the Georgia Association of Water Professionals (GAWP) that takes place every year in Savannah, Ga. Ogletree was friends with the then-Reuse Committee chair Marilyn Hall, who had hatched the ReBrew homebrew competition and beer festival idea right after their 2019 conference.

The catch? All the homebrew would be made with reuse water from a local wastewater treatment plant. Being a water engineer myself (and having already made my own “poo brew” with water from various reclamation facilities I had designed), I was immediately intrigued, but knew there would be many logistical issues in getting something like this completed. Little did I know how many setbacks and pitfalls we would encounter, or the fact that finally reaching the finish line would take five years!

Access the full article in the March/April 2025 Zymurgy magazine.

This article includes the following:

• HOMEBREW RECIPE: Mexican Lager
• HOMEBREW RECIPE: Hefe-Weissbier
• Water Quality of Brewing Cities & Reuse Water