9 booze inspired designs to ring in St. Patrick’s Day

<a href="http://inhabitat.com/happy-saint-patricks-day/">St. Paddy's Day</a> is definitely an homage to Ireland, but there's no denying that it also pays tribute to something a little more universal - booze. And while you may be thinking "What the heck does alcohol have to do with green design?" there are actually a keg's worth of hooch-related eco innovations out there that you might not know about yet. From a man that recycles <a href="http://inhabitat.com/gilpin-family-whisky-is-recycled-from-diabetics-urine/">his own pee into whisky </a>to a <a href="http://inhabitat.com/purposeenergys-eric-fitch-turns-beer-brewery-waste-into-clean-burning-bio-fuel">machine that turns beer brewery waste into power</a>, read on to see the best boozy green stories we have on tap.

When Irish cabinetmaker John Walsh decided to convert his rusty old caravan into a tiny pub, the world's most charming St. Patrick's Day hotspot was born. <a href="http://inhabitat.com/this-tiny-irish-pub-on-wheels-wins-st-patricks-day/" target="_blank">The Shebeen</a>, which is literally translated into “an illicit bar where alcohol is sold illegally.” The mobile booze cruiser was so popular in Ireland, the people of Boston commissioned another one to be brought to the states.

This brings new meaning to the song <em>99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall</em>. Aspiring architect in Chongqing city, China designed and constructed his very own office with 8,500 recycled beer bottles. The <a href="http://inhabitat.com/this-aspiring-architect-built-his-office-using-8500-beer-bottles" target="_blank">impressive upcycled structure</a> gets its sturdy foundation from 40 layers of beer bottles. The entire construction took four months and $11,000 to complete.

James Gilpin has a bit of a different interpretation of the adage "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Gilpin, who has Type 1 Diabetes got to thinking about elderly patients with diabetes, like his grandmother, who secrete tons of unprocessed medicine and sugar in their urine and had a cool - albeit a little gross - breakthrough.

His Gilpin Family Whisky project is a high end line of single malt whiskey made from the sugar-laden urine of people with diabetes - Pissky! We'll drink to that!

Have your brick and drink it too? Famed beer brewer Alfred Heineken and Dutch architect John Habraken came out with their <a href="http://inhabitat.com/heineken-wobo-the-brick-that-holds-beer/">Heineken WOBO</a> (world bottle) brick all the way back in 1963, but the principle behind it still rings true today. As you probably already guessed, the idea behind the boozy brick was that thirsty people could drink their fix of beer from the WOBO and reuse it to build structures. Cheers to that.

It must have taken a lot of frat parties to empty out the 33,000 yellow beer crates that architects SHSH stacked atop one another to create this <a href="http://inhabitat.com/intoxicating-pavilion-made-of-33000-yellow-beer-crates/">intoxicating pavilion</a>. Using the crates like giant legos, the design features interesting architectural touches like columns, arches and even domes inside.

99 bottles of beer is already quite a few to have on your walls, but how about 50,000?! Well, that's about how many John Milkovisch used for his Beer Can House. He drank many of the cans himself (not his least favorite part of the job, we're sure) and they're on the walls, swaying from the front porch, and pretty much everywhere else!

We've seen everything from ice cream to 4Loko being used as fuel and now we can add beer to the list of alternative energy sources - well, beer waste, that is. PurposeEnergy Inc. has created a device that recycles the waste from brewing beer into a functional natural gas.

Okay, so we know today is supposed to be all about Ireland, but Scotland has been greening their booze game too so we need to give them a shoutout. Scottish drinks giant Diageo recently unveiled their £40 million environmentally friendly Roseisle Distillery in Elgin. The innovative project by Austin-Smith: Lord Architects infuses traditional distilling with modern environmental technologies and was even awarded a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ award.

Up until we say this crazy contraption, the only music we thought could come out of beer drinking was awful karaoke. Designer Sam Gensburg's creation is a lot less painful on the ears and features a special packaging for beer bottles that allows them to be transformed into a tone-accurate xylophone after you've drunk 'em.

St. Paddy's Day is definitely an homage to Ireland, but there's no denying that it also pays tribute to something a little more universal - booze. And while you may be thinking "What the heck does alcohol have to do with green design?" there are actually a keg's worth of hooch-related eco innovations out there that you might not know about yet. From a man that recycles his own pee into whiskyto a machine that turns beer brewery waste into power, read on to see the best boozy green stories we have on tap.