I had been meaning to post something about the environmental catastrophe involving the water supply of Harbin, China (short version: It's a cautionary tale for western U.S. cities) but hadn't gotten around to it. Turns out there is a beer angle to the story:
Harbin Brewery had been listed in Hong Kong and was acquired by Anheuser-Busch, which defeated SABMiller, in 2004.
Anheuser-Busch ...... said the water shutdown had not significantly affected its beer production in Harbin and that it was providing some of its supplies to Harbin's citizens.
"The city of Harbin asked our support in supplying fresh drinking water from the wells used at our two breweries to citizens, which we are doing at both breweries, as well as through supplying mobile tankers that will ... deliver fresh drinking water," it said.
It turns out that the Harbin brewery gets its water from deep wells that were unaffected by the spill, not unlike a lot of Colorado breweries that use spring water for brewing. I seem to recall that the late great Broadway Brewing LLC had ground water rights way up in the mountains that it bought from the owners of the laundry that occupied the building before it became a brewery that later made way for condos. Presumably those water rights now belong to the Flying Dog, so we know whom to turn to if there is some quality problem with Denver's water supply.
Comments