“Beercycling”: Denmark Recycles Urine to Brew Beer

Ecotourism and preserving planet Earth are on the minds of many travelers, especially millennials, but Denmark is taking this passion to a new level. This year, the European nation’s famous Roskilde Festival will serve beer harvested from human urine.

Brewers who are in charge of providing beer for the four-day summer festival — where big acts like the Foo Fighters, the Weeknd and Blink-182 will perform — developed a system that turned urine from the 2015 festival into beer that will be served to festivalgoers at this year’s event. The Danish Agriculture and Food Council took nearly 54,000 liters of urine from the 2015 festival and used the contents as fertilizer to harvest malting barley. The year-long harvesting process culminated at the end of March, making the beer ready for drinking by the start of the festival in late June.

The barley produced 60,000 bottles of pilsner that will be sold at the Roskilde Festival. Guests will also be able to pre-order beer for their campsite, at prices that are 35 percent less than beer purchased at the festival. Two Danish beers will be for sale: Tuborg pilsner, and organic, unfiltered Tuborg Rå. The price for 24 bottles is slightly less than $20 for those who pre-order.