--- title: Craft Beer Recycled description: The new pale ale, crafted with recycled and purified sewage water, is getting the thumbs-up from beer drinkers in San Diego. canonical: https://time.com/4708149/recycled-water-beer/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-21T20:25:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:05.050Z og:title: Beer Brewed With 'Wastewater' Is Apparently Wonderful og:description: A California brewer is using recycled sewage water for a new pale ale. og:url: https://time.com/4708149/recycled-water-beer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Beer Brewed With 'Wastewater' Is Apparently Wonderful twitter:description: A California brewer is using recycled sewage water for a new pale ale. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Beer Brewed With Recycled 'Wastewater' Is Apparently Safe and Delicious  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Mar 21, 2017 8:25 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Mar 21, 2017 8:25 PM UTC One creative brewer is bringing his craft to a whole new level of sustainability, repurposing water once used in processing toilet waste for [beers](http://www.extracrispy.com/drinks/1923/how-to-eat-beer-for-breakfast). The Full Circle Pale Ale, which recently became available for public taste testing, comes to us thanks to popular national [beer brand Stone Brewing](http://www.stonebrewing.com/), which has an outpost in San Diego. They decided to make use of the beach town’s [earth-friendly recycled water program](https://www.sandiego.gov/water/purewater)—and came away from the experiment with surprisingly positive results. “Among the pale ales that I’ve made, it’s probably in the top three,” Senior Manager of Brewing and Innovation Steve Gonzalez [told San Diego’s KGTV](http://www.10news.com/news/stone-brewing-creates-beer-with-recycled-water), noting that it’s a “very clean tasting beer.” The local mayor Kevin Faulconer was actually among one of the first to take the plunge and try the ale and give it a glowing review. Just goes to show: one man’s trash can still be turned into another man’s (liquid) treasure. All it takes is an industrial-scale recycling system and some creative, alcoholic additives. > [](https://twitter.com/PureWaterSD/status/842535999594881024) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4708149/recycled-water-beer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4708149/recycled-water-beer/"},"headline":"Beer Brewed With Recycled 'Wastewater' Is Apparently Safe and Delicious","datePublished":"2017-03-21T20:25:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:05.050Z","description":"A California brewer is using recycled water to craft Full Circle Pale Ale.","url":"https://time.com/4708149/recycled-water-beer/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Food & Drink","photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4708149/recycled-water-beer/","name":"Beer Brewed With Recycled 'Wastewater' Is Apparently Safe and Delicious"}}]}] ```