This Finnish Brewery Is Using Goose Poop to Make Beer
After forty years of craft brewing, including an especially wild past decade, so many breweries have tried using so many crazy ingredients that barely anything is shocking. Whale vomit, bonsai tree trimmings, pepper spray, fried chicken: We've covered it all. But that's not to say a new beer announcement can't still catch my eye-or make them pop out of their sockets-like a new beer out of Finland made with the help of some goose poop.
Wasted Potential Imperial Stout is produced by Ant Brew but was inspired by the microbrewery's home city, Lahti. After being named the European Green Capital 2021 (taking the reins from last year's winner, Lisbon), the Finnish city about an hour-plus north of Helsinki wanted to celebrate with a beer that really hammered home their "wasteless circular economy" credentials, leading to the collaboration.
Anna Salmisalo
Other releases in the Wasted Potential series utilize slightly more pedestrian ingredients like wild herbs and food waste, but "goose droppings" is clearly deserving of its headlining slot. "The poop is used in a food-safe way to smoke malt to create a unique stout beer," the announcement explains. (When it comes to using feces to make beer, I prefer not to paraphrase!) "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."
Saara Piispanen, head of communications for Lahti European Green Capital, added, "Our environment and circular economy are important for us, and we want to discuss these topics in interesting ways."
However, beer fans in Finland looking to try this extremely "interesting" beer will have to be patient: The city is rolling out other Wasted Potential beers first, so the goose beer isn't set to land until later in the summer.
