Ruminations: And Our Special for the Day ... Are You Prepared to Drink Outside the Box?

"The poop is used in a food-safe way to smoke malt to create a unique stout beer."
"The goose droppings are gathered from local parks where geese are causing a messy problem."
"Now, the local parks get cleaner and the special edition summer beverages are perfect for a picnic in the park -- a true two birds with one stone type of solution."
Ant Brew, Wasted Potential Imperial Stout

"Each beer is a lesson in circularity. Food waste from local supermarkets, roadside weeds, and even goose poop can be used to make something new and nice."
Green Lahti promotional video

"This beer shows that we can make use of almost anything from old fruits to moss, and even goose poop."
"If something is good for beer, we are not afraid to try it."
Ant Brew

"They say you can't polish a turd. But this is where the sheep dung really shines."
"The taste is quite astringent, as notes of cloves combine with a lingering ashy aftertaste."
"Memorable!"
Whiskystories

Ant Brew Wasted Potential Imperial Stout made from goose droppings

A Finnish microbrewery is using goose droppings gathered from local parks to make its Wasted Potential Imperial Stout. Photo by Getty Images

Lahti, Finland is the prize-holder of the 2021 European Green Capital, with 90 percent of household waste recovered and recycled. Remarkable, but their aspirations don't stop there Their goal is to succeed in becoming totally waste-free by 2050. They plan to find a use for everything normally considered a waste product, including what comes out of the business end of a goose. The bright idea of using animal waste to ensure that even waste isn't wasted, saw the city of Lahti team up with the brewery that operates in Lahti.

And so, Wasted Potential was launched as a series of craft beer with sustainability uppermost in mind. What could be more responsibly green, after all? Transforming goose droppings by repurposing it to create a beer with a distinctive taste. So do feces and beer production just naturally go together? It's likely that no one at the average pub had given it much thought, and if they did, it would likely be rejected out of hand. Holding aloft an ice-cold beer labelled 'poop included', might not appeal to everyone.

The poop is sterilized before it's used to flavour the malt. (Ant Brew)

In a city dedicated to cleaning up the environment and teaching its inhabitants that nothing need go to waste, the pick-up is likelier to be casually accepting, however. Just remember that primitive societies and those where wood is scarce as a natural product to cook with, commonly used dried animal dung as a cooking fuel; freely available and at hand in herding communities. A natural resource to beat all natural resources, so to speak.

Sheep dung-smoked delicacies like lamb and Arctic char are commonly available at restaurants in Iceland, where peat or wood for cooking with is fairly scarce. And for Christmas fare, there is nothing quite like lamb or mutton smoked over sheep dung. Floki Icelandic Whisky credits its special aroma to barley-filled oak barrels smoked over sheep dung in the production of its young malt.

In Tasmania, Australia, Belgrove Distillery uses sheep dung-smoking technique in the production of its "Wholly Shit" rye whisky. When chef Gordon Ramsay hoisted a shovel in an episode of his television series Uncharted, he caused quite a stir in the audience. Indiovu Gin in South Africa infuses its award-winning product with dried, washed, sterilized, macerated and redried elephant dung. "Think of it as a tea bag" offers Les Ansley, its co-founder.

Ant Brew's Wasted Potential Imperial Stout won't be ready for the tasting market just yet. It is fermenting in tanks at the present time, to be released later in the summer of 2021. Its initial offering in the series is a beer brewed with expired fruit purees and orange peels, discarded after the juicing process.

"This series of beers is our way to create important discussions about food waste, utilization of waste, urban farming, and local and wild food among beer enthusiasts."
"We are constantly developing ways to utilize new ingredients in brewing, and are not afraid to think outside of the box."
Karl Puttonen, manager, Ant Brew