Things I Wish I'd Known

I've been listening to some back episodes of Brew Strong during my commutes this past week and particularly those about brewing water. There's a ton of useful information in them about how water chemistry makes a difference and some pretty advanced information about how to adjust your brewing water for different styles based on the grain bill you're using and your local water. I'll save that for a future post.

However, there are some really simple take-aways which I wish someone had told me early on:

• There's a historical reason that certain cities brewed different styles of beer. More alkaline water supplies need to be balanced with roasted, darker malts. They contribute a lower pH to the mash and brewing process overall, which gets the mash pH and final beer pH into the optimal range. Likewise, cities with more neutral water supplies brewed lighter colored beers because they didn't need the acidic contribution of the roasted malts.

• If you're an extract brewer, use distilled water. The malt extract you're using already has an appropriate mineral content, acidity and hardness for the malts used to make it. Don't bother with anything else.

(Image used under the creative commons license. The original is here.)