The sun is shining, it's 11:00 AM, and I'm shit-faced. No—I'm full of piss. Almost. I'm in Hedehusene, in western Copenhagen, to taste Denmark's first pee beer: the Pisner pilsner.Let me begin by saying that the Pisner is not filtered piss that's been fermented and put into a bottle. Nor is it piss that's been poured into a water bottle and shaken up with a few water purification tablets. This beer is the beautiful result of a collaboration between the Danish Food and Agriculture Council and Nørrebro Bryghus, a Nordic craft brewery and gastropub.If you really think hard about it, you might remember that one time back in 2015 when you donated your extremely full bladder to the Food and Agriculture council by pissing into a 12-gallon urinal at the Roskilde music festival? OK maybe you don't, but either way, that golden liquid went on to get mixed with Stroh Rum, Jägermeister, and draft beer to finally become a beer itself.
The urinal trough at the 2015 Roskilde Music Festival. Picture via Landbrug & Fødevarer (the Danish Agriculture and Food Council).
What's the meaning behind all this madness? To focus on sustainability in agriculture, the Council collected 54,000 litres of festival urine, calling the project "from piss to pilsner"—or "beer cycling," as it was so poetically named. After eight months of storage, the urine would be sprayed onto a malting barley field in Køge, Denmark, in place of conventional fertiliser made from cow or pig waste.Read more on MUNCHIES.
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