How Do Professional Brewers Treat Their Water

[Mike123]

I went to a local brewing school about 10 years ago, one of those for-the-general-public classes where you make the beer as a group and have a bash when it is ready. Lots of fun, highly recommended.

At the end of the course I asked the Master Brewer how they treat their water. I figured if you are brewing hundreds of gallons of beer at a time that the water treatment needs to be efficient. He told me "nothing, we just use tap water". I know that has to be complete BS because the tap water here tastes like crap, and I was offended, but said nothing and went on my way.

I supposed he did not want to reveal brewery recipe secrets or something, so I get that. He must hear that question a lot. It could be an involved answer leading to more questions, and I would get weary of it myself, so I understand completely.

If any of you reading this are pro brewers could you tell what your process is for water treatment? RO system? Tap water treated with minerals? Distilled water? Thanks in advance for sharing, and if not that is Ok too.

 

[Yooper]

The breweries are all over the place with what they do. It depends on where they are, and the water supply.

For example, the owner of Surly in Minneapolis told me the reason the built where they did was because of the municipal water in that location vs a different location in Minneapolis was better for them and they could use tap water. They would just have to dechlorinate.

Some breweries use RO.
There is a town in Texas where I spent a winter a couple of years ago. Three brewpubs in town. Two have TERRIBLE beer (@Pappers_ was at one of them with me) and one has GREAT beer. Guess which one uses tap water and which as their own RO system.........................

The weird thing is that I've been to some brewpubs where the beer has a distinct water chemistry flavor or aroma. We have one in our little neck of the woods that has basically good beer- except the lighter colored beers have a bit of astringency on the swallow and a tinge of an off-flavor. But they are very busy, and I think that most people either thing craft beer is supposed to have that, or that it's a "house flavor". They use tap water and we have a very high bicarbonate level. They can make a good porter with that water, and sure enough, the porter is fine.

 

[couchsending]

Just like @Yooper said, it totally depends on the water. Some places that have incredibly bad water for brewing all styles or where their water fluctuates considerably throughout the year will invest in RO. It’s considerably more expensive (and wasteful) but easier.

Some places are fortunate enough to just carbon filter. I believe water in Boston/NYC and especially Portland, OR has very low mineral levels so they can just carbon filter and go.

Often times the best places know exactly how to treat their water for every style and can work with even less than ideal water to manipulate what they want the beer to taste/feel like.

Still amazes me when I go into breweries where dark beers are great and pale are horrible or vice versa. It’s so easy to pick out the breweries that don’t understand their water and how to manipulate it.

 

[Qhrumphf]

All the places I've dealt with/worked it's mostly carbon filtered tap water, with salts and acid added as needed. Water here is decent enough that it works. Some places genuinely do nothing (not always to their benefit). Some places overthink it. I've never worked somewhere using RO (but they're out there) apart from countertop setups for lab work, and one place i worked it was prohibited from using RO (some equipment safety mechanisms would fail if RO was used since they worked electrochemically). I've always added acid and salts to mash and kettle as needed. Sparge water is tougher so mash pH needs to be low enough to keep runoff low enough. Some places use an inline doser to treat strike and sparge water in the right ratios in real time. I'd love to have that but have never been a place where it was necessary enough to be in the budget.

 

[BigEd]

I went to a local brewing school about 10 years ago, one of those for-the-general-public classes where you make the beer as a group and have a bash when it is ready. Lots of fun, highly recommended.

At the end of the course I asked the Master Brewer how they treat their water. I figured if you are brewing hundreds of gallons of beer at a time that the water treatment needs to be efficient. He told me "nothing, we just use tap water". I know that has to be complete BS because the tap water here tastes like crap, and I was offended, but said nothing and went on my way.

I supposed he did not want to reveal brewery recipe secrets or something, so I get that. He must hear that question a lot. It could be an involved answer leading to more questions, and I would get weary of it myself, so I understand completely.

If any of you reading this are pro brewers could you tell what your process is for water treatment? RO system? Tap water treated with minerals? Distilled water? Thanks in advance for sharing, and if not that is Ok too.

Other than filtering out particulates and chlorine he was probably telling you the truth. I know there are micros and certainly brewpubs in my area who do no water adjustment whatsoever. Unfortunately just because somebody owns a brewery or brews professionally you cannot assume that they have or utilize knowledge in this area.

There are no "secret formulas" for brewing water treatment. This part of brewing is mostly science and not a lot of art.

 

[etk29321]

This is a large reason why so many beer styles we k ow and love today exist. Breweries historically just wanted to make the best beer they could with whatever water they already had. It’s only in modern times that we expect a brewery anywhere to make any style they want that would require water adjustment

 

[Mike123]

Other than filtering out particulates and chlorine he was probably telling you the truth. I know there are micros and certainly brewpubs in my area who do no water adjustment whatsoever. Unfortunately just because somebody owns a brewery or brews professionally you cannot assume that they have or utilize knowledge in this area.

There are no "secret formulas" for brewing water treatment. This part of brewing is mostly science and not a lot of art.

Filtering out particulates and removing chlorine would have been an answer, instead he said "nothing". So basically he lied.

 

[mabrungard]

Ten years ago, 'no treatment' would have been the prevalent response. It is better now, but not by a lot. There are still plenty of breweries making poor quality beer. Brewers Association reports that a lot of breweries will be going out of business due to the pandemic. The one's that were making poor beer, good riddance to.

 

[SanPancho]

From what I’ve ever seen it’s typically just activated charcoal canisters or backwashing tanks for particulate and chlorine.