Nature of water heart of matter
HOLY water was sprinkled around during Easter as Catholic congregations were blessed. But unlike breweries’ water, it is not filtered, merely sanctified by a priest.
Because water is the main ingredient (between 90% and 95%) of beer, the world’s early breweries were built next to rivers or springs. For example, Dunedin’s Speight’s brewery started in 1876 near a spring, as did Lion’s first brewery in Auckland in 1880.
The best beer is made from pure glacierfed streams. But, generally, water can contain traces of calcium, magnesium, sulphates, bicarbonates, salt and acids, all of which impact on brewing. Water high in bicarbonates, for example, suits stout.
The home of pilsner in the city of Pilsen in the Czech Republic was established in 1839 at the confluence of two rivers which provided water very low in minerals — perfect for lager.
In contrast, the breweries in Burton in England relied on
wells fed by the Trent River, which produced water high in minerals — perfect for maltier ales. Even today, the Burton breweries’ water contains 35 times more calcium and 100 times more bicarbonate than the water used in Pilsen.
Nowadays, most plants rely on municipal reticulated drinking water which, after filtering, loses its chlorine (although fluoride remains) and is lower in minerals, some of which needs adding for certain styles.
Most of Speight’s water for brewing, for example, still comes from the spring. The town water supply has fewer minerals in it, so calcium is added. In Alexandra, Ferris Road Brewery filters the town’s water. Gypsum or calcium is added, depending on the style of beer being made.
Desalinated water ends up with virtually no salts or minerals and is relatively high in acids, so some minerals need to be added even for drinking. At the recent Royal Queensland Food and Wine show, brewers were challenged to brew with desalinated water.
Nearly 40 did, with a stout winning.
Big brew
Russian brewer Baltika has several styles available in New Zealand — the latest a couple in 900ml cans for a relatively cheap $5.60 each.
Baltika is the secondlargest beer producer (after Heineken) in Europe. It started in St Petersburg in 1990 and was bought in 2008 by Denmark’s Carlsberg.
One of the two big cans that have appeared on shelves has little information in English apart from ‘‘lager beer’’. The rest of the labelling seems to be in Russian, Polish or Latvian, declaring ‘‘light beer’’ in each language. ‘‘Light’’ it is, a 4.5% brew with a sweetish malt flavour and little hop aroma, flavour or bite.
The second one, called by the brand name Zatecky Gus (4.6%), is also a lager according to an English reference (one of five languages used) printed on the can.
The name refers to a hop variety grown in Zatec in the Czech Republic. This one has slightly more hop character.