Nothing like a little click-bait for a title.
It's true that the decision reached by Special Master Eugene E. Siler, Jr., last month supported Tennessee and the other defendants, the City of Memphis and Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW). You can read about Judge Siler's decision in the Memphis Flyer and DeSoto Times-Tribune (BTW: Siler did not say 'Water is infinite' - the paper misquoted him) and my take and that of water lawyer Jesse J. Richardson by clicking here. And note that Siler's decision is really a recommendation that will be presented to the Supreme Court, which has the final say.
With all the above as preface, we now know why Mississippi insisted upon investing almost 15 years to get Tennessee to quit taking all that groundwater from the Memphis Sand aquifer. They wanted to save that water to make beer! Instead we now have Memphis Sands beer! I kid you not (much). From the Wiseacre Brewing Company:
From deep within the Earth’s crust, the finest drinking water on the planet springs forth to Memphis. This unique aquifer supplies WISEACRE with the most necessary of ingredients for the production of crisp, light-colored lager. The rains that fell to earth 3000 years ago are filtered very slowly through hundreds of feet of fine grain sand, culminating in a huge underground lake filled with 57 trillion gallons [Note: ~175 MAF) of virtually mineral-free water. From this prestigious water reserve, we supply Memphis with Sands, our one-of-a-kind Lager. Beauteous in its simplicity, it is very low in bitterness and full of delicious flavors of bread and crackery malt.
Of course that underground lake is fed by an underground river.
I have heard and read that the water quality in the Memphis Sand aquifer is very good - low TDS (total dissolved solids) - although there are concerns about pollution. At least one company was interested in bottling water from the MSA which I think they wanted to call 'Graceland', but that proposal went nowhere.
I cannot take much credit for all this. My former Master's student, Courtney van
Stolk, works in Seattle but is from the Memphis area. While there buying food and drink for the holidays, she discovered Memphis Sands beer and posted about it on her wonderful blog, Blue Marble Earth. Read the rest of the story there, including ratings of the descriptive material, can art, and most all, the taste. I won't give anything away.
Wonder if there is a low-carb brew?
Enjoy!
“Beer’s intellectual. What a shame so many idiots drink it.” - Ray Bradbury
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