Why waste waste if you can get wasted?

'When life gives you lemons, make lemonade' as an advice had a good run. But the proverb's been rendered obsolete by inflation, which has made the humble nimbu increasingly bourgeois and 'Let them drink nimbu paani' a guillotine-worthy statement emanating from tony kitchens in the summer of 2022. So, here's a worthy contender: 'When life pisses on you, make beer!' You can thank Singapore for this one.

Singapore's national water agency, in association with a local craft beer brewery, has created the 'possibly greenest beer': NewBrew. The 'tropical blonde ale', with a 'smooth, toasted honey-like aftertaste', is crafted using German barley malts, aromatic citra, calypso hops and Norwegian kveik. But the star ingredient here is high-quality recycled sewage water, which makes up 95% of the lager. While social media's been quick to take the piss out of the concept, Singapore - that's battled acute water scarcity issues and has successfully been turning sewage into potable water for years - may be on to something. Given the high carbon footprint of beer, and the fact that it takes up to 60 litres of water to make a litre of lager, why flush away millions of litres of waste a day, when you can use it to get wasted instead? And, if there's the 'eww!' factor, think of past PM Morarji Desai, the ultimate aatmanirbhar health-drink drinker.