The droppings are collected by cleaning up local parks
Many breweries have tried using crazy ingredients: whale vomit, bonsai tree trimmings, pepper spray, and fried chicken. And we saw so many other weird drinks when we talked about the Swedish Disgusting Food Museum. Now, it’s the turn of Finland with its goose poop beer.
Ant Brew, a Finnish brewery is launching a new series of beers to celebrate the “Wasted Potential”. So, the beers will contain local food waste ingredients such as berries, bread, other fruits, wild herbs, as well as goose droppings.
Their Wasted Potential Imperial Stout was inspired by the microbrewery’s home city, Lahti. After being named the European Green Capital 2021 (the last year’s winner was Lisbon), the Finnish city wanted to celebrate with a beer that really confirmed its “wasteless circular economy” credentials.
Other releases in the Wasted Potential series utilize slightly dull ingredients like wild herbs and food waste, but “goose droppings” can’t surely compete.
“The poop is used in a food-safe way to smoke malt to create a unique stout beer”, the announcement explains. “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”.
“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”, Ant Brew’s Kari Puttonen stated. “Working with the Lahti Green Capital has been great. We are constantly developing ways to utilize new ingredients in brewing, and are not afraid to think outside of the box”.
“Our environment and circular economy are important for us, and we want to discuss these topics in interesting ways”, Saara Piispanen, head of communications for Lahti European Green Capital, added.
However, beer fans in Finland looking to try this unusual beer will have to be patient: The city is introducing other Wasted Potential beers first, so the goose beer isn’t set to arrive until later in the summer.
Food is becoming part of sustainability, too. So, will we end up drinking and eating directly from our bodies?
Source foodandwine.com
