Bend’s Big Beer Boom Brings Water Issues

Bend is quickly becoming known as a national hot spot for beer — making and drinking. But each new brewery in town has the potential to become a major water user for the city.

Still, it?s not the water the breweries need to make beer that is concerning the city — it?s the water they put out.

“Good water, good beer,” said Britt Nelson a brewer at Boneyard Brewery.

That’s part of the reason there’s been a craft brewery explosion in Central Oregon. Deschutes Brewery makes over 7 million gallons of beer each year, making them one of the single largest water users in Bend.

“We use about 4 gallons of water for every gallon of beer that we produce. So, four times that — say 28 million gallons,” said Deschutes Brewery Owner Gary Fish.

With the BBC, McMenamins, Ten Barrel, Worthy, Boneyard and others all planning to brew in Bend next year, the impact on water adds up. But it’s not so much the water going into the brewery, it’s sewage coming out.

“On the wastewater side, depending on where a brewery may set up, there could be some issues,” said Paul Rheault, Bend’s public works director.

The city says on the Westside and north part of Bend, there are places where there isn’t currently enough sewer capacity to add a brewery.

Still, big and small, breweries in Central Oregon are growing.

“We’re expanding — every day, it seems we’re getting new tanks,” said Nelson.

Boneyard pre-treats the water that leaves their brewery. Deschutes Brewery uses its output to fertilize fields and feed cows. Also, the company puts up $25,000 a year to put water back where people see it most.

“We’ve made a commitment through the Deschutes River Conservancy to restore a billion gallons of water in the middle Deschutes every year,” Fish said.