Talking Head: Rainwater beer production shut down at 5 Seasons
November 18th, 2009 by Jeff Holland in Drink, News, Restaurants
Crawford Moran with a city water beer
The nifty rainwater collection system that 5 Seasons Brewing Company installed at their Westside brewpub location in September attracted plenty of attention. Apparently CNN saw my Talking Head story on it and decided to run their own short feature.
Unfortunately, the story also got the attention of various local, state, and federal regulators, who whipped out their statute books to find that there are no guidelines for the use of rainwater in beer, so therefore it must be illegal.
“We weren’t thinking about hiding it, because we had no idea it would be a problem,” says brewer Crawford Moran. “The system produces ‘potable water,’ which is the standard for commercial applications, but that doesn’t necessarily translate [to a brewpub], because there’s no regulating authority.”
The system, installed by RainHarvest Systems of Cumming, Georgia, has been used in commercial operations before, and the 6-stage filtration system filters down to 0.5 microns, followed by a UV filter that kills bacteria. It produces water so pure that the University of Georgia Soil and Water Laboratory, the certified lab that tested the sample from 5 Seasons, fairly gushed about it in its normally staid scientific assessment. No matter. The brewery could have dug a well on the site of the former stockyard without even having the water tested.
After an initial threat to shut down the entire operation, cooler heads prevailed and the brewery was told to cease production of beer using rainwater and return to city water until the various agencies could sort out their jurisdictions and establish the necessary odious paperwork that must accompany any new development in the alcoholic beverage industry.
“The EPA wants to weigh in on it,” says Moran. “It’s a touchstone case for the future of commercially-used water, because you know this thing is going to become more and more popular. It’s all about education at this point: Showing them how it works, and how it’s maintained, and how it’s good for the state.”
With the possibility of millions of gallons of water in Lake Lanier being no longer available to Metro Atlanta, 5 Seasons’ effort to get its water “off the grid” and reduce its consumption of city water by several thousand gallons a month seems like a brilliant step in the right direction. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources agrees and has promised to work from the inside to help facilitate the approval process.
Moran hopes that the issue can be resolved quickly, although they have been told not to expect any kind of timeline. Meanwhile, the expensive system sits idly by while the staff has to explain to enthusiastic customers who have heard about the smooth beer produced from the unusually soft water that they are no longer brewing with rainwater. “It’s tough,” Moran admits. “We’re small and we don’t have any money to market ourselves, and then CNN calls and wants to do another story, and the Weather Channel wants to do a national story on us, and now they can’t. When we have to turn down these opportunities, that’s the cost of bureaucracy to small businesses. It sucks.”
While you wait for the return of rainwater beer, stop in for the oatmeal porter or a pumpkin ale, both of which I sampled on a recent visit and found to be excellent. I couldn’t even taste the chlorine.
November 18th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
the beer sucks there anyway
November 18th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
I am speechless after reading this.
This kind of bureaucratic bullshit is exactly what keeps society from innovating toward better solutions that benefit us all.
I’m sure that this story will be picked up by the mainstream media and I’m looking forward to watching as 5 Seasons is made a martyr and the bureaucrats who shut them down loose their shorts.
November 18th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
what a F-in waste of time & money. Doesn’t the ‘Shitty’ of Atlanta have better things to spend their efforts & our tax money on? oh, forget I asked that question…….
November 18th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
If you collect your own water, you are not buying it from the city (lost revenue). This has nothing to do with sanitation, EPA, etc.
I’m not a fan of 5SW -overpriced food, bad service, etc. – but they should be able to get their water wherever they like – I don’t care if they filter the water from their urinals, as long as it’s clean (I think they should tell you the source though).
November 19th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Good, I’m glad our government is focused on such important and pressing issues. Idiots. I agree with Malcolm, there must be some missing revenues that they want to get their greedy little paws on. So sad and pathetic.
November 19th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Instead of noticing how beer has turned into a small tourist industry for Atlanta…(sweetwater, brick store, and 5SW’s water project all written about nationally) the city just wants to pay the sewer bill.
How dare people collect rain and not pay the City of Atlanta’s ridiculous water bill price.
Funny how a year ago, the state was screaming to conserve and now they are forcing a brewery to make their product with drinking water.
November 19th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
If Atlanta weren’t the most corrupt, backwards city in the Southeast, they would be encouraging companies to take this approach. My guess is the high water costs of the city are just another tax they feel that they have to be able to collect from all businesses.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
I would caution against jumping to conclusions about who to blame. I purposely did not dig too deeply into this at Crawford’s request, since the paperwork is just coming across the desk of some of these agencies, and he wants them to be able to review it for themselves. I too, thought the city water department may have tipped this to someone, but a quick check of the water output of the city shows that the 3,000 gals/month we are talking about is 1/10,000th PERCENT, or 1 millionth, of the total. The issue involves city, county, state and federal agencies, and is more about sorting out jurisdiction than anything. Anyone in the alcoholic beverage industy knows the absurdity of the laws in that sector.
November 28th, 2009 at 12:39 am
This seems to reflect our overeager tendency to cast a scrutinous eye on anything that has to do with booze. I think the most important point is this: laws are designed to take away, not to grant, rights. So in the absence of a law/regulation governing the use of rain water, it should be presumed the right is intact.
November 29th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
i am with Jeff on this one… anything alcohol invites a bunch of extra bureaucracy.
all the other speculation probably not far off either
/just saying
January 3rd, 2010 at 8:20 am
very sad, but don’t give up! These guys should receive tax breaks for using rain water. Isn’t Atlanta in a water crisis? The beauracracy can not hold up for long. The answers to most of our environmental as well as infrastructure problems will be eliminated with alternatives such as rainwater harvesting, greywater systems, alternative building methods, and composting toilets (very high tech, for those of you making faces- less odor than conventional toilets). Lets keep educating the uneducating until these things are the norm!