Water...

Well, presumably brewers contract brew because it's cheaper than building more capacity. So right off the bat it's about not having the money. OP's question was about water. Pretty sure at this point all that needs to be said about water chemistry has been said. Cheers!

 

One way that brewers treat their brewing water is that they pass the water through an RO system and then add some mineral salts (Calcium Chloride, Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate), Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulfate), etc.) to ‘build up’ the brewing water. They will add these salts for both flavoring and to aid in achieving a proper mash pH.

The process to treat brewing water is not a hard process. As to what it costs to perform at a commercial level I do not now. Perhaps form beer industry folks can provide insight here.

By amount the largest ingredient in beer is water. Makes sense to pay proper attention here.

Cheers!

@honkey @jzainasheff @SierraTerence @BillManley

 

In Tombstone, our water quality is poor (to say the least). The city actually has 4 different water sources that get pulled from at different times of the year and the water chemistry varies from each one. One of the sources is a river, one is runoff from a mountain, and I can’t remember the other two, but frequently we get notes on our door about elevated levels of lead and arsenic making the water unsafe to drink. This is somewhat common in old mining towns. As a result, we use RO water and our RO system is set to reduce our total dissolved solids to 2 ppm. Because of this, our water flow rate and our drain rate are equal, so it takes an equal amount of waste water to create a volume of product water. As you might imagine, that means our water bill is quite high (double what it would be with a simple carbon filtration system like is common in many breweries). That also means that I have a blank slate for our water profile and it’s easy to build up the water tailored for whatever style I’m brewing.

 

Weedy, I suppose there is no economical use for this waste water? Do you just add it to the municipal sewer system? Are there any taxes or fees for adding this excess water to the sewer system?

Cheers!

 

If anyone has interest. @ManBearPat
https://www.brunwater.com/water-knowledge

 

It's different for every municipality, but wherever I paid for water myself it was billed separately. On my last bill water is $42.40 and sewer is $69.60. IIRC, when we lived in Michigan it was about equal.

 

In Tombstone the sewage fee equals the water use fee with the assumption being that all water goes down the drain at some point. When people fill their pools for example, they’re still charged for those thousands of gallons of sewage. So in our case, the drainage is accounted for in the water “usage”

 

,If you tour enough breweries you will see RO systems in some. You will also see bags of mineral salts to add to the water.

Stone has a big RO system.

Breweries with very pure water sources add minerals. On the Jennings brewery tour in the Lakes District of England, there were stacks of bags. Salt, gypsum, CaCl2, Chalk.

 

New Belgium stuff is being brewed at Steam Whistle so I’m guessing they have no difficulty replicating the water. Even if it were at Junction or Brunswick, all the contract spots have pretty fancy set-ups.

 

I refuse to drink any water from the SC beach areas. I won’t even brush my teeth with it, the taste isn’t bad, but the episodes of those having gastric distress is very high. Maybe it’s the low water tables I don’t know, maybe the depth of the water source makes a difference, could be that way in desert areas too.

 

I recall Iron City brewery, in Pittsburgh argued that their sewer bill was incorrect. The vast amount of water went out in cans, bottles and kegs. The brewery was just getting by and not paying its bills. Suffice it to say they did not win that battle with City Hall and did go bankrupt.

But yeah, if your breweries sewer bill is linked to your water usage, you are getting hosed.

Though what is the beer to water ratio in a modern brewery? I have read up to 3:1. For every gallon of beer there is 3 gallons of water. Cleaning, washing, rinsing etc.
Cheers

 

In my township I pay a fixed fee for sewage - it is not tied into my water usage. I could fill up a swimming pool and yes my water bill would be high but I would not pay 'extra' for my sewage bill.

Cheers!

 

Back when brewing was less science and more experience, the very existence of the brewery was dependent on the water source.
Dublin has Stout because that is the beer they can make.
Bass is made with Burton water because Burton water makes a good Bass but not much else.
Helles is what you'll get with Munich's water profile.

Water is first priority in brewing. Everything else comes next.
Today water profiles can be made just about anywhere, but the classic styles are the result of the local water conditions and the brewers desire to make the best of what they have.

Cheers

 

At Siebel, we were taught to expect 6:1. I've tried figuring it out before, but it's easier to just run the total brewery usage since there are unmetered water applications... Spraying down the floor for example and polishing tanks. We "beat" the 6:1 ratio by a bit actually... We're about 5:1. It's worth pointing out that we have a cold liquor tank and the hot liquor tank gets refilled from our heat exchanger. A lot of small breweries don't have those options and thus, they waste far more water.

 

The brewers of Dublin, Burton upon Trent and Bavaria did not use their water ‘as is’ but instead they pre-treated their brewing water. This was discussed by Martin Brungard in a series of articles published in Zymurgy Magazine:

Dublin: Nov/Dec 2013 issue

“The Dublin (water) profile is not well suited for brewing. It is unlikely that great beer could be made with this profile without water treatment. So how did the Irish brewers in the area with similar water brew? The answer is a simple technique: pre-boiling the water.

Pre-boiling water that has high concentrations of calcium and bicarbonate drives off carbo dioxide (CO2) from the water and causes calcium carbonate to precipitate from solution and deposit on the bottom of the kettle. When the chalk has settled and the water is clear, the water is decanted off the sediment. This treatment provides reduced hardness and alkalinity.”

Burton upon Trent: Jan/Feb 2014 issue

The water profile of a number of wells used to draw brewing water is presented in Table 1: Worthington Deep, Worthington Shallow, Allsopp Shallow Marston Deep, Marston Shallow,…

“Many resources portray Burton water as very mineralized with some ions at levels that are known to produce poor quality beer. It is important to recognize that dilution from the River Trent played an important factor in moderating these excessive ion concentrations. This is especially true for brewing pale ales that display the signature characteristics of Burton beers without being overly mineralized or off-tasting.”

Bavaria: Mar/Apr 2014 issue

“The high concentration of bicarbonate in these Bavarian waters can make them difficult to brew with. Bicarbonate and its related forms, carbonate and carbonic acid, create alkalinity in water. Excess alkalinity can keep mash and wort pH from dropping into a preferred range between 5.2 and 5.6.

A technique available to brewers for centuries is pre-boiling the brewing water.”

He then presents in Table 3: Recommended Bavarian Water Profile which has a recommended level of bicarbonate of 75 mg/L (which is much lower than the values presented in Table 2: Water Quality in Select Bavarian Cities).

If you are a member of the AHA you can read these articles in their entirety online.

Cheers!

 

Bad water makes bad beer, if you have multiple brewing facilities everything has to be the same if you want consistency. There’s enough variables elsewhere your water shouldn’t be one of them, it’s just to basic.

 

Thanks Jack.
This is all true. The point is that brewers had limited options for brewing depending on the water source. First and foremost, that is going to determine what the brewer could produce.

Pre-boil all you want. No Bavarian was ever going to make Guinness. And no Dubliner was going to approach a Helles. Not until modern timez.

I do want to point out that Brungard's editors are missing the mark when they let this slide by
“Many resources portray Burton water as very mineralized with some ions at levels that are known to produce poor quality beer." That is factually correct. Nobody ever argued that Burton water is anything but high mineral content, nobody ever argued that Bass or other Burton beers are poor in quality. Nobody ever disputed that taming the high mineral content is an important factor. Finally, Trent River water is actually Burton water too. Without stating such, all water in Burton is Burton water. That's a minor point but it is also relevant, and if the author is trying to make a point it needs to be discussed.

So in the case of Burton, the water is the single most important determining factor, and brewers of the day had very little options except to deal with it. Dilution is one way. Because dilution is the solution to pollution of course.

Cheers

 

The type of small brewery you are talking about wouldn't have the problem of multiple brewing locations

 

Bill, are you a member of the AHA? If so, I would strongly encourage you to read all three articles in their entirety. Judging content solely via the very limited snippets is sub-optimum.

The message: the brewers of the past in those three locations did 'manage' the local water and did not just brew with the local water is indeed true and an important aspect to keep in mind IMO. As I stated above: "...did not use their water ‘as is’".

Cheers!

 

The traditional beer of Munich was Dunkel. Helles came later, when they boiled or used slaked lime to treat the water to drop bicarbonates.