How important are ingredient choices in making award-winning beers?
Ingredient choices are important, but not as important as how fresh those ingredients are. Do you routinely treat your brewing water? How? Yes and no. I have moderately hard water, so it s good for a lot of different beer styles. But I often use outside water sources, especially when brewing European Pale Lagers. I often pre-boil my brewing water the night before to precipitate carbonates. I often adjust my brewing water with calcium chloride (CaCl2) and/or gypsum (CaSO4). Occasionally, I ll use lactic acid (C3H6O3) or a phosphoric acid (H3PO4) solution to adjust my sparge water pH depending on the chosen style. I rarely, but sometimes use precipitated chalk (CaCO3) added directly to the mash water to achieve a more alkaline pH, but again it really depends on what you really want to achieve. Overall, water chemistry plays a hugely important role in trying to duplicate some of the world s finest beers. How important are primary and secondary fermentation times and temperatures in making
