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A startup used the abundant rainfalls in the Netherlands as a resource for a thirsty market.
Optimizing climate change and reusing? It’s possible in the Netherlands, where a beer has been created by reusing rainfall: rains have been increasing in intensity in the Netherlands, and that water often goes wasted.
The idea came from a small group of Amsterdam entrepreneurs: together with the De Prael brewery they created Hemelswater (“heaven’s water” in Dutch), a 5.7% beer made from ultra-filtered rain, organic malted barley and wheat, hops and yeast.
“It’s a bitter blond, like an IPA – explains Hemelswater co-founder Joris Hoebe – It’s quite bitter, fruity and soft”.
The initiative was inspired by a government project called “Amsterdam Rainproof” that aims to make citizens aware of the problems of heavy rainfall and take action to increase the city’s sponge capacity, so that rainwater is absorbed or reused.
“We get lousy summers and a lot of rain – says Hoebe – As a hobby, I was also brewing beer and noticed you need a lot of water. I was thinking, why don’t we put these two together?”
Together with a group of four students and a researcher, Hoebe set up two huge tanks in the grounds of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. In two weekends of heavy rain in May the team managed to push 1,000 litres of rainwater to De Prael brewery, which had agreed to be their partner.
With a special bacterial filtration system, the rainwater was purified and Hemelswater was born. The beer is currently on sale for around €2 a bottle, and will be served on tap at various restaurants and bars around Amsterdam for around €4.
Source: The Guardian
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