Get Er Brewed Homebrew and Microbrewery Supply Shop

Starting a Microbrewery in Ireland

Geterbrewed have successfully established themselves as a one stop Microbrewery shop, from the installation of the equipment to the ongoing access of the finest ingredients, including malt, hops, yeast, finings and clarification products. We have installed both Speidel Braumeister Microbreweries and Brewiks Microbreweries in Ireland.

We proudly distribute for Brewiks & Speidel and as we have our own Microbrewery and first hand experience of what it takes to start a brewery in Ireland, we have a wealth of knowledge that means we can advise you correctly on the set up costs and how to make your brewery a success. We have qualified brewers that have degrees in brewing and distilling and consultants that we can use to provide help with everything that is required.

Geterbrewed can save you a lot of time as we have researched the brewing industry in Ireland and can effectively advise on what the best option is for you, we assist with site visits and the installation process, we have plug and brew options that make the start-up very easy. With the talented team we have working with us full time we can provide a first class service, the follow up service we offer is what makes us successful, speak to the brewers we have helped previously, we go above and beyond for our microbrewery customers

Points to Consider before you start a brewery?

· Size of brewery

· Licensing laws & what applications are required

· Locating Premises & ensuring it is suitable for planning permission and Health & Safety

· Planning the site – Size, Power, Drainage

· Recipe development & Ingredients

· Water treatment – this is critically important in making the best beers

· Packaging – bottling & kegging

· Regulating fermentation temperatures

· Distribution & route to market

· Training for the brewers, staff required

· Financing the brewery, is it via Loans, Grants or Investors

Geterbrewed will guide and support you through the whole process if you are working with us for you Microbrewery project

What size of brewery are you considering? We highlight 4 options

1. Brewpub - 200 Litre system brewing beer for sale on the premises

2. Microbrewery - 500 Litre System for distributing beer via trade to both on and off sale in your locality

3. Microbrewery – A 10HL or 20 HL system for professional medium scale distribution, for distributing throughout the country and looking at export opportunities for future growth

4. Contract Brewing – Have another brewery make your beer, this can be an initial option with the aim of leading to owning your own brewery

The dream of running your own brewery has to be backed up with a business plan that sets out your aims from the start, so we suggest you choose your model and plan to make that a success, you can of course use your revenue to grow the business and brewery as funds become available. Output can be greatly increased with the addition of extra fermentation space in the interim as you plan to invest in the next step up. We can work within your budgets and have contacts for sourcing second hand brewing equipment to compliment your package

Option 1 – A brewpub or restaurant producing their own beer.

There is a lot of benefits to this system, you can have the flexibility to brew lots of different styles of beers in small quantities and excite the beer drinkers with new recipes regularly. New recipes on this scale can be very affordable. Geterbrewed can help with recipe development and have a bank of award winning recipes that they can adapt and share to suit your needs. The brewpub option works well as the profit margins are high, the beer is brewed on site and sold usually via draft taps that means packaging and transport costs are at a minimum. We can assist with a kegging option that allows you to brew and ferment the beer on site and then carbonate and keg in small batches.

200 Litre Brew systems mean that the fermenters are small and will need temperature regulation for the fermenters, meaning that it is most likely going to need a system to maintain the heat at a steady fermentation temperature. Geterbrewed have innovative ways of maintaining this heat and can set this up at minimal costs.

Anyone can learn how to use a system of this size and Geterbrewed provide full training on the equipment purchased from them and will attend on the first brewday to ensure you are confident in the use of the system.

Licensing for starting a small brewpub is fairly straight forward, there is some bureaucracy with the paperwork that needs completed but we have experience with how to complete this in a hassle free manner.

Packaging options for very small scale bottling options have been made by our in house engineer, we can now make affordable 5 head fillers that allow you to bottle beer for small scale packaging.

Geterbrewed recommend cold conditioning combined with a fining regime to ensure you are producing consistently impressive beers with a brewery of this size, we can provide help with the cooling system at a low cost and have fining and clarification products in stock

Brewpub Location & Foot fall is critical to success and well best succeed with ease in an already established bar

Option 2 – 500 Litre Microbrewery system

Again perfect for a brewpub or restaurant producing their own beer but the size also allows you to look at selling the beer to trade and even export if pushing the output hard with shift working brewers.

This size of system can be worked very efficiently to produce large volumes of beer, we have used a 500 litre stystem in the past ourselves and worked a double brewday to produce in excess of 1000 litres of beer per day, we actually used the Brewiks 500 litre system to produce 1300 litres per day five days per week, which meant we could comfortably produce 6500 litres of beer per week totaling a huge 338000 litres per year. This is fairly labour intensive to work the system this hard but it is acheiveable.

This size of system lends itself very well to running a range of special beers for periodical release to excite and deliver a new beer to your on and off trade customers

Fermentation tanks are the key point to hard much you can push this system, you can order larger fermenters that will allow you to double brew into them increasing output.

With the experience of using this size of system effectively ourselves we have been able to grow output which has allowed us to use the revenue to help pay for the next size of system.

Geterbrewed recommend you buy pressurized fermenters with this size of system, you can then produce carbonated beer on site which can have a bottling and kegging option added, we have designed a range of addition bottle filling and keg filling attachments that can add value to the pressurized tanks

Option 3 – a 10HL or 20HL Brewhouse for professional medium scale distribution

These size of breweries make it possible to produce some serious volumes of beer.

Geterbrewed just recently ordered a show model 10HL system for their showroom in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

A larger system can mean less staff and of course less wages meaning you can produce more beer in a single brewday and use your own personal time more effectively to grow sales, complete paperwork /invoices etc

Economies come with scale in terms of production costs but be aware that a large scale brewery will require you to have to have a route to market for a large amount of beer. In Ireland there is problems with tap ties and getting draft launched successfully is extremely difficult due to publicans & restaurants taking payments in exchange for exclusive draft agreements. That means you will need to carefully consider your route to market, export will most likely be required to achieve the volumes you need to make it profitable

Geterbrewed have 10HL & 20HL options from Brewiks, the Brewiks company has been making brewing equipment for 27 years, the new generation have been very clever and have designed a highlt effectient brewhouse with innovative technology and industry leading diagnostics. We recommend you join us for a brewday and you will get a feel for the quality of the equipment. We recommend you get the right equipment first time, there is steel fabricators out there that will make a system that is dangerous or problematic due to design flaws as they have tried to copy other breweries without having any formal brewing knowledge. We work with Brewiks as they have the knowledge and experience and lead the way with this size of system.

A Brewiks Microbrewery will draw customers to your location as it is visually pleasing & a beautifully simple machine to operate. Brewiks has upgradeability so in effect you have left open the ability to expand right from the very start.

Option 4 – Contract brewing In Ireland

Lots of breweries offer this service, we have the luxury of multiple size brewing systems at our showroom and brewery and we have contract brewed for Hotels, Restaurants and start up Microbreweries, we even brew one of specials for a range of bars. This leaves you time to focus on sales & marketing of your brand, the key selling point of this way of starting a brewery is that you don’t have to worry about the production or consistency of the quality of the beer. Obviously the brewery making the beer makes a margin but for the unexperienced brewer it may be a good place to start, make sure you highlight from the start it’s a contract brand and show the production trial, craft beer drinkers don’t like to be fooled with false marketing.

At the time of writing this (October 2017), Ireland has 90 breweries in total, 62 Breweries operating and producing beer and 28 contract brands. Northern Ireland has 32 Breweries, 6 of which are contract brand. Only two thirds of these breweries export in small volumes with 3 major breweries making up the majority of export at a rate of about four fifths.

So if we compare this to countries who are further developed craft beer countries it is clear there is still space for many more additional breweries. With the current output share of 3.4% of beer consumption being craft beer, the major challenge appears to me to be production capacity to allow this to increase in Ireland.

The size of startup Microbreweries in Ireland in recent years has consistently been on the increase, further strong growth is expected and predictions of many new microbreweries are still to come. To match share of beer consumption of the likes of America which currently sits at five times that of Ireland you can have confidence that now is a good time to invest and start a microbrewery.

With the recent developments in the Summer of 2017 in licensing and the ability for Irish breweries to now sell their own beer from the brewery it is predicted that this will grow sales further, unfortunately Northern Ireland may take a little longer as they have no sitting government in Stormont.

To conclude it’s an excellent time to start a Microbrewery in Ireland in my opinion but I do personally feel it’s either a brewpub or large scale brewery that are required, my experience is that these are the most profitable and successful. We love to share our knowledge about starting a microbrewery as we are passionate about making a difference in this industry so feel free to contact us for a chat and some help and support, we’d love to work with you on a Microbrewery Project in Ireland.

Brewiks Microbrewery Equipment

· Knowledge & Expertise – the company have been making brewing equipment for the last 27 years

· Extreme Brewing – ability to brew high gravity beers, cereal mashing, Decoction and basically can make any kind of beer you can think of

· Plug & Brew – the smaller 200, 200 & 500 litre system are simply plug and brew

· Designed by brewers

· Minimal Space required plus the smaller systems come on wheels

· Touchscreen Controls

· Highly Efficient & Highly Satisfied Customer Database

· Patented Mixing System which can also adapt to become a keg cleaner

· Impressive Heating System plus Heat Recuperation – perfect for double brewdays

· Easily Cleaned & simple to use

· Hand Made by skilled Slovenian workforce

· Guaranteed – excellent aftercare

· No Moving Parts to break – only the pump which has been designed to be removeable

· Combined Lauter Tun & Whirlpool – mist/fog sparging from a built in heat exchanger, perfect size grain bed, whirlpools correctly producing good clarity wort

· Built in Counter Flow Chiller – real time cooling built into the Brewiks

Speidel Braumeister Microbrewery Equipment

· Well known German manufacturer of brewing equipment

· Principles are nearly identical for all sizes of braumeister

· 5 sizes available – 10, 20, 50, 200, 500

· Everything takes place in one cauldron – Mashing, Lauetring, Boiling, Hop Boiling, Whirlpooling

· Mobile & Easy to Move

· Patented Technology

· Tried & Tested Compact Brewing unit

· Minimal Space Required

· Ideal for Restaurants

· Touch Screen Control Panel

Crisp Malt

With the waning of the long summer days and the start of the morning dews, the past few weeks have seen farmers bringing in the harvest much as they for hundreds of years. While the technology has changed the fundamentals have not and this is true also for Crisp Malt. We started back in 1870 in Norfolk, the Crisp family recognising that the area was especially well suited to site a maltings due to the abundance of some of the highest quality malting barley in the world. We’ve been working with local farmers to bring in that harvest every year since. The combine harvesters have got bigger and so to the silos, but the relationships remain the same. We work with some 270 farmers to ensure the barley is cut, dried and stored onsite at our Ryburgh malting’s in a swift manner to lock in the very best quality barley for the malt we produce.

In a month or 2, once the barley has woken from its deep sleep, known as dormancy, we will clean it, steep, germinate and kiln it to produce a range of malts suited to our 500 small brewery customers up and down the UK and Ireland. Some of our Maris Otter barley will move across our no. 19 floor maltings, one of the last surviving traditional maltings in the UK and the only one in Norfolk to survive the bombing runs of WWII. Nothing more that the maltsers touch and feel of the grain and a few temperature probes will determine the quality of this malt, but we believe that keeping the old methods alive is important. Other barley will be turned into rich Vienna and Munich malts for creating richness in flavour and colour and others still will be caramelised and roasted to produce crystal and dark malts for bitters and stouts. In the heart of Speyside we will take or local Aberdeenshire barley and dry it with local peat to produce the signature flavours and aromas for peated whisk(e)y making.

Crisp Malt started working with Jonathan at Geterbrewed back in February of this year as we recognised a demand for high quality malt in Northern Ireland. Jonathan approached us to work in partnership and once we saw the passion he has for his business and for beer we were delighted to start working together. It’s this same passion that we bring to our work every day. Our sales team come from either a malt or beer making background and so we pride ourselves on understanding what our customers need from a maltster. I myself have spent the past 8 years working in breweries in Scotland. For example, we know that crush is crucial in terms of balancing run-off and flavour extract and so we check every single batch for the different flour, course/fine grits and husk percentages and adjust the mill accordingly to ensure consistent malt every single time.

Sometimes the range of malts can be overwhelming. We’ve kept our range easy to understand and hopefully cover all the bases. If we don’t though, and you think we could be making something new then drop us an email and we will try to incorporate new ideas into our range. We want to innovate just as much as you.

Why not try some of the following malts in your next brew….

Dextrin Malt

Referred to recently by a Scottish customer as magic malt, this lightly kilned malt retains a high percentage of dextrins once mashed giving excellent mouth feel and head retention properties. Use it up to 10% much like Torrified Wheat.

Naked Oats Malt

Trying to create a New England IPA? Oats are an essential part of the mix as they add that creaminess and protein haze which is the hallmark of the style. Just watch as these oats are huskless so don’t use in too high a %. If you do then you might want to add rice hulls to open up the bed. Torrified Flaked Oats can also be used and these have the benefit of having the husk retained.

Clear Choice Malt

Having issues with chill haze in your final beer? The cycling of hot and cold in cellars, bar back fridges and bottle shop chillers can play havoc with the presentation of beers in bottle and keg. The old adage that people drink with their eyes is still true for the most part and so we developed Clear Choice Malt to combat this common haze issue. The malt has been selectively bred over several decades to ensure there is no polyphenol in the husk. Since chill (and permanent) haze in filtered beers is down to the complexing of polyphenols, this malt ensures a chill stable beer. Due to the lack of astringency caused by the polyphenol (also known as tannin) this malt imparts a lovely honey sweetness.

Maris Otter Malt

Maris Otter has been around for 53 years now and is the longest continually malted variety in the world. It’s famed amongst brewers due to its superb flavour in ales and also as a very forgiving malt in the brewhouse in terms of mashing run off and temperature tolerance.

Chevallier Heritage Malt

Chevallier malt was the dominant barley variety in the mid 19 ^th century but died out in the 20^th and was replaced by more modern, higher yielding varieties. We worked with the national seed collection to revive this barley from just 7 seeds and we now produce just a few hundred tonnes every year. The malt produced from Chavellier is extremely rich and produces moreish beers packed full of malt flavour. A malt for a special occasion like an anniversary brew or special bottling. Plus, the sack it comes in pretty cool.

These are just some of the speciality malt we produce. As Jonathan at Geterbrewed for the full range and for our substitution table when you switching from another maltster and if you’ve any questions then please get in touch via email or twitter.

The link for malt substitutions is found here; https://www.geterbrewed.com/malt-substitution-guid...

If you need any technical assistance in relation to malt we are happy to help

Colin Johnston

Craft Brewing & Distilling Sales Manager at Crisp Malting Group

There is a renewed interest in the use of un malted cereals in the brewing industry, both home brewers and small craft brewers are experimenting more with unmalted cereals. Geterbrewed have been proudly working with Crisp malt as their distributor in Ireland, the Crisp Malting Group Acquired Micronized Food Products in 2014 and this adds a range of un malted cereals to our extensive catalogue of brewing ingredients at the best value for you the brewer…

So what are unmalted cereals?

Cooked cereals used in brewing are known as Torrefied cereals, and are widely used as natural adjuncts in the brewing process. Geterbrewed supply a range of wheat, barley, maize, oats in flaked or whole form.

Flaked products can be conveniently used as you can add to the wort without the need for milling

Torrified Products are widely used to enhance clarity in the brewing process as well as improving head retention, they offer exceleent cost benefits compared to malt products

Carl Heron from Crisp Malt talks about a renewed interest in unmalted cereal ingredients

“This has, perhaps, been a reaction to the way international players have set their store by inclusions of maize or rice at the rate of over 20%,” he said. “However, brewers in the craft sector are increasingly adventurous. They’re experimenting extensively with the rich range of malts, but also visiting some of the excellent un-malted cereals on offer.”

Torrefied and micronised wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize and rice all offer the opportunity to play tunes on the flavour notes of beer. They have an impact on colour, head retention, body, smoothness and mouthfeel, and can therefore offer significant help in orchestrating the overall characters of beers.

Clearly, brewers can’t use raw grains. In the past, those that weren’t malted might be passed through a stream of hot sand by grain merchants or had to be put through a cereal mash by brewers (using up precious space in the mash tun). The processes of torrefication and micronisation have provided much more satisfactory answers. They involve rapid cooking of cereals at high temperatures to gelatinise the starchy endosperm.

Torrefication, rather like the sand-based methods of the past, involves passing the grains through a fluidised bed of very hot air at 750 to 780ºF. The cell walls of the grains are disrupted. The grains expand, their density changes, they’re aspirated to remove dust and chaff, then sized and cooled in the ambient air.

Micronisation involves using infrared waves to rapidly heat grains until they ‘pop’. The molecules within the grains vibrate and the molecular friction causes the fast increase in temperature and rise in water vapour pressure. Once the cellular structure has been disrupted, the starch gelatinises.

What unmalted cereal ingredients do Geterbrewed stock?

Torrefied whole or crushed wheat

Torrefied wheat improves head retention, especially in wheat beers. It’s great for use as a nitrogen diluent as it adds very little soluble nitrogen to wort. It also adds subtle depth of flavour and body.

Torrefied flaked barley

Torrefied flaked barley has similar benefits to torrefied wheat, but with a stronger and slightly harsher flavour.

Micronised flaked maize

Micronized flaked maize adds up to 20% of grist to the tun with normal malt, and even more with high diastatic power malt. On top of this, it improves body and mouthfeel, and is gluten and nitrogen free, allowing it to be used as a diluent in coeliac-friendly beers.

Micronised flaked rice

Micronized flaked rice also adds grist to the tun, and adds a greater perception of refreshment. It also accentuates hop aromas, without adding taste.

Micronised flaked oats

Micronized flaked oats improve mouthfeel and increase body, but also impart a smoothness and a pleasant oaty flavour on the beer.

Both torrefication and micronisation can be applied to many cereals, including barley, wheat, rice, maize, oats, and rye, creating grains ready to be used for brewing, providing their own benefits. With these products you will be able to develop a brew that consists of your preferred colour, head retention, body, smoothness, and mouthfeel.

Of course, experimenting with malts is crucial to developing a fantastic brew, but if a beer needs a little boost in a certain area, there’s usually an un-malted cereal which can be used to save the day.

https://www.geterbrewed.com/flaked-and-unmalted-ad...

https://www.geterbrewed.ie/flaked-and-unmalted-adj...

New Lallemand Wildbrew Sourpitch

Exciting update from the Lallemand team, we spent some time with the team recently at Drinktec in Munich, this is the first launch of a range of exciting new products, with a pitch rate on this new dried sour bacteria of 10g per h/l this is incredible value paired with an excellent new product

As sour beer gains more attention in the market, we are thrilled to see brewers both reviving historical sour methods and pushing the boundaries of traditional styles and flavor. We meet the Lallemand team at Drinktec and it appears Lallemand Brewing have been listening, and we have something for you. Lallemand have developed a product specifically for avant-garde brewers looking to showcase creativity through sour all the while maintaining consistency and quality.

Lallemand Brewing is proud to introduce the first product of the WildBrew™ product line: say hello to WildBrew™ Sour Pitch, a ready-to-use dried bacteria, a strain of Lactobacillus plantarum specifically selected for its ability to produce a wide range of sour beer styles, including Gose, Lambic and Berliner Weisse. WildBrew™ Sour Pitch will deliver unmatched consistency, effortless application, fully assured performance and unparalleled purity for brewing the sour beer style of your choice.

Join this broad-reaching category and explore this mix of historic and sometimes uncharted territory - from time-honored Belgian lambics and traditional kettle-soured German ales to the Wild West of strange and forward-pushing experimental sours. Focus on your creativity and style and let WildBrew™ Sour Pitch do the rest.

And just as with any of Lallemand Brewing’s premium brewing yeasts, WildBrew™ Sour Pitch comes with Lallemand’s unmatched technical support and expertise. If you have any questions, doubts or simply want to know more, just visit www.lallemandbrewing.com/sour

WildBrewTM Sour Pitch is a high-performance, high-purity lactic acid bacteria specifically selected for its ability to produce a wide range of sour beer styles.

WildBrewTM Sour Pitch produces a clean and balanced citrus flavor profile typical of both traditional and modern sour beer styles. When inoculated at optimal temperature and the right conditions, it is a powerful, safe and easy way to handle bacteria for various beer souring techniques, such as a typical kettle souring process. Besides providing an outstanding performance, WildBrewTM Sour Pitch is capable of delivering consistent results for brewers.

Checkout the product for recommended souring procedure;

https://www.geterbrewed.ie/lallemand-wildbrew-sour-pitch-250g-en/

https://www.geterbrewed.ie/lallemand-wildbrew-sour-pitch-250g-en/

Geterbrewed distribute Lallemand Brewing products in Ireland both North & South and we are pleased to be the first to launch these exciting new products to you, if you want to discuss your microbrewery yeast requirements then please contact one of our sales team at info@geterbrewed.com, we have unrivalled technical support and hold stock of all the Lallemand Yeast Products in our cold storage in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Geterbrewed will also have some sample packs for homebrewers soon too

Finings Review

Introduction

The visual appeal of what we eat and drink has a major effect on the mind of the consumer. For most consumers a bright clear liquid is preferable to a cloudy one. In recent years there has been a movement among some craft brewers to promote cloudy, or less bright, beers with arguments that the flavour, for whatever reason is somehow better. However since many of these brewers do not understand the practical application of finings or do not possess the technology for filtration their disdain for beer clarity would appear to be very convenient.

The vast majority of beer sold is bright and clear and its clarity is considered an extremely important attribute.

To produce a bright cask conditioned beer the brewer is totally dependent on the use of finings for clarification. The production of brewery conditioned beer is less dependent on finings. However many brewers choose to use both kettle finings and isinglass finings, and sometimes auxiliary finings, for pre-filtration clarification. Even where brewers have turned their back on the use of isinglass finings in favour of centrifugation etc. as pre-filtration treatments, most continue with the use of kettle finings.

To achieve the best fining results it is important to consider the whole system from the choice of raw materials to the design and operation of brewing equipment along with the choice of finings, as well as the dose rate and dose method. Furthermore it has been shown that optimising clarity at each stage in the process will help considerably to produce the most consistent and best clarity at least cost.

The exact mechanisms of wort and beer clarification are still not fully understood. This is undoubtedly due to the complex nature of wort and beer chemistry. However, sufficient of the critical factors are well enough understood to allow a better use of finings than was the case even as recently as thirty years ago.

Discussion

The pre-history of finings is inevitably pure conjecture but it is possibly easier to see how Irish moss found its way into beer or wort than it is to imagine how acidified fish swim bladder found its way into beer. The monks who constituted most of the scientific community of medieval times reputedly used Irish moss to clarify wine, beer and honey. At some point fish swim bladders must have been subjected to the right set of circumstances which revealed its clarification potential.

Kettle finings

Historically kettle finings were flakes of a particular seaweed, Irish Moss, Chondrus crispus. However most kettle finings in use today are produced from Eucheuma Cottonii – mostly grown in warmer countries such as the Philippines. The active compound is the polysaccharide kappa carageenan. It is manufactured in granular, powder or tablet form, the tablets having about 40% active ingredient with the rest binding and effervescing agents.

As recently as the 1920s kettle finings were described as removing “protein bodies” and were thought of as an auxiliary finings for beer (Harman et al. 1927:203). More recently by the 1980s it was suggested “that carrageenans stimulate the precipitation of solids both in the hot wort and the cold wort” (Mathews 1986: 384). Kettle finings were reported to be responsible for the coagulation of fine particles into larger particles or flocs which then readily sediment as well as the reduction in the level of wort proteins (ibid). The reaction between kettle finings and soluble proteins alongside the reaction between kettle finings and non microbiological particles to create flocs were reported by (Vernon 1984:25),(Montgomery 1986). With (McMurrough 1985:93) indicating that kettle finings react with the proteins most likely to be involved with chill haze formation. Two papers examining firstly the molecular basis of wort clarification (Dale 1995:285) and looking at the mechanism of action of kettle finings (Dale 1996: 285) confirmed that kettle finings reacted with soluble polypeptides and with non microbiological particles to create flocs. They also put forward the importance of the change in carrageenan to a helical structure on cooling to enable reaction with these particles.

The importance of kettle finings as part of a complete fining pre-filtration system was now beginning to make better sense and there was confirmation that removing hot break and cold break at the relevant stage of the process was important to the later successful filtration and even beer stability. Producing a well-coordinated finings system requires the optimisation of each stage. Currently the practical way of predicting the optimal choice and addition rate of kettle finings is to carry out a series of tests on samples of wort, with the brightest supernatant and the lowest level of sediment indicating the optimal result (Thompson 1994). However there is hope for a more general predictive test with some work carried out by (South 1996).

Beer finings

Many of the early published papers on isinglass focus on the manufacture of isinglass from fish swim bladders. The importance of the choice and quality of the swim bladders is discussed (Berry 1907) along with the choice of cutting acid or acids, the time to cut, temperature control and the mechanical mixing (Burns 1944). This was obviously a process fraught with problems and pitfalls for the unwary brewer who would easily end up with substandard isinglass which would inevitably lead to poor beer clarity. The advent of isinglass floc and shred considerably improved the brewers chances of successful isinglass manufacture with a more rapid and even cutting process. The different fining ability of isinglass made from swim bladders from different sources was correlated with differences in the molecular size of some of the constituent collagen molecules (Leach 1967) and that longer molecules produced better fining results (Leach and Barrett 1967). The positive charge on isinglass attracted to the negative charge on the cell wall of yeast is set forward as the principal reaction of isinglass in beer as reported by (Wiles 1951: 84) which also explains the inability of isinglass to fine wild yeast. This same principal reaction is confirmed by (Vickers 1974: 19) and by (Taylor1993: 202). However there is a more recent hypothesis that the “soluble collagen reacting with a soluble beer component to form loose, fluffy flocs which as they form, first enmesh and then interact with yeast and non-biological particles to form tighter dense flocs which sediment to leave bright beer” (Leather 1994:432). This would help to explain why the same isinglass addition rate for a certain beer remains the same despite the yeast count varying from 0.5 to 2.0 million cells per ml. The levels of fine particles in beer have been shown to have a considerable effect on sediment volume and beer clarity. When these non-biological particles have been categorised into three fractions namely below 2 micron, 2 to 10 micron and above 10 micron it has been shown that the optimum fining performance is obtained when all three categories contain about one million particles per ml. If the beer contains too few particles while good initial clarity is obtained the sediment is loose and if disturbed the resettlement clarity is not as good. If the beer contains too many of these fine particles a greater volume of sediment is produced and initial clarity is poorer and any improvement is only possible with the addition of auxiliary finings (ibid). The only way to identify which particular isinglass blend to use and which auxiliary to use, if an auxiliary is required, and what the optimum dose rates are, is by empirical trials. This involves a series of tests on the beer and a visual determination of the clarity and sediment (Thompson 1994:474). The method of addition of isinglass to beer is of considerable importance to achieving the optimum result. However a compromise in favour of a simple system rather than a better much more complicated addition system is usually the practical solution. Adding finings to chill and filter beer should be done proportionately to the flow of beer during transfer. The finings should be diluted to as low a viscosity as is practicable and the point of addition should be at a point of turbulent flow. The same procedure is preferable for addition to cask by adding isinglass proportionately to the beer passing to the cask. However the normal compromise is to fill the cask, leaving enough space for the isinglass and then to squirt the isinglass into the beer filled cask. This improvement of performance due to the rapid and complete dispersal of isinglass in beer to achieve the best possible result is further confirmation that the initial reaction of isinglass in beer is more likely to be with a rapid reacting soluble component than with the yeast cell wall (ibid).

Auxiliary finings appear to react with and remove positively charged soluble material which would otherwise compete with isinglass, or indeed to react directly with isinglass itself to initiate the formation of flocs necessary for fining action. Polysaccharide and silicate auxiliaries react differently in beer and so it is likely that both mechanisms apply (Leather 1994:432) and as observed this would vary from beer to beer.

There is general agreement that a coordinated approach to fining is required to obtain the optimum result both for cask beer and for pre-filtration treatment of chilled and filtered beer. This approach is well presented in both (Leather 1998) in the 1996 Cambridge prize lecture and in the Brewers Supply Group (BSG) “Wort and Beer Clarification Manual” written by Ian L Ward. While there has been some further progress towards understanding the mechanism of kettle finings (Dale 1995), (Dale 1996), the BSG manual and the aforementioned 1996 Cambridge Prize Lecture together contain the most comprehensive presentation of how finings work and how they should be applied. It should be noted that the BSG manual relies heavily on previous research carried out and methodology employed by Savilles Clarification. This is embodied in the statement:

It has been demonstrated empirically, and has generally been accepted as best practice,

to remove particulates at as many stages of the brewing process as practical, since this

gives a more efficient and consistent process. In the case of cask beer, considerably

brighter beer is obtained using this principle than if all the clarification is left to the

post-fermentation stage. For filtered beer, both longer filter runs and lower post

filtration hazes are obtained (Ward, 2014)

Moreover, it is borne out by several observations including for example, the inclusion of Leather’s observation of the mechanism of kettle finings whereby the carrageenan in kettle finings can react with both soluble proteins and insoluble proteins in separate reactions, in the latter case leading directly to flocculation and in the former leading to first a soluble carrageenan-protein complex and then an insoluble carrageenan-protein complex. Furthermore, Ward makes an explicit recognition of the derivation of these ideas from Leather’s Cambridge Prize Lecture.

The whole concept of finings is under serious attack after many hundreds of years of service to the brewing industry. Concern has been raised at the possible allergic reaction to any remaining traces of fish collagen in beer treated by isinglass. Vegan vegetarians who have a very loud voice for such a small group have managed to persuade Diageo, the owners of the Guinness brand to stop using isinglass and instead use centrifugation. There is no mention of how much more expensive this treatment will be in both monetary and energy terms. Once brewers stop using products like isinglass the likelihood is that they will never restart and yet another part of the tradition of British and Irish brewing will have been lost. It will be interesting to see if the use of isinglass persists elsewhere in the world. In a recent paper on filtration choices (Boulton and Quain 2008) there was no mention of any finings as a pre-filtration treatment and the only pre-filtration treatment recommended for consideration was tannic acid.

Conclusion

After many hundreds of years of successful use of seaweed extract as kettle finings and isinglass as beer finings the mechanisms of these agents and how beer chemistry interacts with them are more clearly understood. There are still many aspects which need further investigation but for now the level of knowledge available in support of finings means that brewers using them can be confident of a reliably successful and low cost clarification system.

Bibliography

Barrett J, Leach AA (1967) The molecular weight and soluble collagen content of finings in relation to its fining potential. J. Inst. Brew. 73: 246-254

Berry AE (1907) The Manufacture of Brewers’ Finings. J. Inst. Brew. 13: 44-65

Boulton C, Quain D (2008) Making Choices. Brewers Guardian, May: 24-28

Burns JA (1944) II The fining of beer. J. Inst. Brew. 50: 119-123

Dale CJ, Morris LO, Lyddiatt A, Leather RV (1995) Studies on the molecular basis of wort clarification by copper fining agents (kappa carrageenan). J. Inst. Brew. 101: 285-288

Dale CJ, Tran HTN, Lyddiatt A, Leather RV (1996) Studies on the mechanism of action of copper fining agents (K carrageenan) J. Inst. Brew. 102: 285-289

Grimmett CM (1994) The Theory and Practice of Beer Clarification – Part 3. The Brewer, December: 522 - 524

Harman HW, Oliver JH, Woodhouse P. (1927) Finings, J. Inst. Brew. 34: 203-213

Leather RV (1994) The Theory and Practice of Beer Clarification – Part 1 – Theory. The Brewer. October: 429-433

Leather RV, Ward IL, Dale CJ (1995) The effect of wort pH on copper fining performance. J. Inst. Brew. 101:187-190

Leather RV, Dali CJ, Morson BT (1997) Characterisation of beer particle charges and the role of particle charge in beer processing. J. Inst. Brew. 103: 377-380

Leather RV (1998) The Cambridge prize lecture 1996 From Field to Firkin: An integrated approach to beer clarification and quality. J. Inst. Brew. 104: 9-18

Mathews AJD (1986) Copper Finings – A New Insight. The Brewer, October: 384-386

McMurrough I, Hennigan GP, Cleary K (1985) Interactions of Proteoses and Polyphenols in Worts, Beers and Model Systems. J. Inst. Brew. 91:93-100

Montgomery GWG, Hough JS, Mathews AJD, Morrison KB, Morson BT (1986) Proceedings of the Convention of the Institute of Brewing (Australia and New Zealand Section), Hobart.

Morris TM (1986) The Effect of Cold Break on the Fining of Beer J. Inst. Brew. 92: 93-96

Taylor R (1993) The Fining of Cask Beer. The Brewer. May: 202-205

Thompson GJ (1994) The Theory and Practice of Beer Clarification – Part 2 – Practice. The Brewer, November: 470 - 476

South JB (1996) Prediction of wort cold break performance of malt and its applications. J. Inst. Brew. 102: 149-154

Vernon PS (1985) Wort Clarification. The Brewers’ Guardian. 3:25-28

Vickers J, Ballard G (1974) Amelioration of Colloidal Conditions of Beer. The Brewer. January: 19-25

Ward IL https://bsgcraftbrewing.com/Resources%5CCraftBrewi... [Last Modified 11 Feb. 2014]

Wiles A (1951) The Action of Finings and its Relation to the Electrokenetic Properties of the Yeast Cell. European Brewery Convention Proceedings of the 3rd Congress, Brighton. 84-97

Written by our head brewer Alistair Thompson (Hillstown Brewery)

Whole-cone hops or pellets this causes more heated debate among brewers than anything else.

I suggest that it is difficult to dispute that pellets are better where it counts – flavour, storage-capacity and easy-of-use.

This is not intended as anti-leaf propaganda and it should be noted that leaf hops do give off clearer floral notes – so if that is you are looking for in your beer, then whole-leaf hops are definitely advised. In any other sense, pellets are definitely a better choice even when it comes to the actual taste of the beer. They impart character quicker than leaf hops do, they provide more flavour, and most importantly, they are more consistent in flavour.

There is something romantic about using actual hops in your brewing and there is definitely something to be said for that. However there is nothing romantic about having to clean out the mess of spent hops from brewing and fermenting vessels including clogged valves – or ending up with a poorly hopped end-product because of the varying hop alpha and difficulty in estimating the hop utilization correctly.

Pelletised hops are essentially hops crushed into pellet form. This takes place within two or three days from harvest – while the hops are still very fresh. In the process, the leaves and stalks of the hop are removed, leaving only the cones in the pellets. Because pellets no longer look natural but instead industrial, some brewers have the notion that they are inferior to using actual hops, but this is simply not true.

Better Flavour

Firstly hop pellets give of more flavour than whole-cone hops. According to studies, hop pellets give roughly 10% more bitterness, flavour and aroma compared to whole-cone. In crushing hops for making hop pellets, the lupilin glands inside the hops are crushed, which means you get a better extraction rate of alpha acid – leading to more bitterness when the alpha acid is isomerised in the boil.

In many blind tests, pellet hops have come out on top in terms of flavour and scientists have found similar results by analysing the chemical compounds in the flavour profiles. Various tasting studies report similar results – that the flavour intensity was favourably affected by the use of hop pellets when comparing to whole-cone hops and it has also been shown that pellets increase the flavour stability brew-to-brew.

These are some of cited reasons that pellets are preferred to whole-cone by professionals, who want consistency in their product.

Having said all this, many people claim that whole-cone gives off a better flavour when it comes to dry hopping. However the results from blind tests are inconclusive. On top of which, whole cone hops introduce more oxygen to the beer and soak up more of the wort and they are also impractical in the brewing process for reasons given below.

Easier Storage

Having tried to deal with the big, contentious issue – which type tastes better – we can move on to talking about what everyone agrees on: pellets are way more practical, not least because how easy they are to store.

Pelletised hops take up less space, pellets have less surface area, so they oxidize more slowly which means they stay fresh longer and have a better flavour for longer. Pellets have a lower rate of alpha loss than whole-leaf hops, with only 10-20% loss over 12 months at 20^oC and almost no loss at all in a frozen state. They last up to 3 years in a normal refrigerator. Whole leaf hops, on the other hand, last approximately 6 months and in the best-case scenario up to 1 year by which time they will not give anything close to their original flavour. Smelly socks and parmesan cheese have both been used to describe the smell of old hops.

Very, very fresh whole-leaf hops may be equally as good as (some would claim superior to) pellets, but the high alpha loss rate removes any advantage and only brewing with fresh, seasonal whole-leaf hops would restrict brewing to three months a year!

Easier Brewing

The use of whole-leaf hops produces more mess to clean up and can clog up the nozzles and valves of your brewing vessel. Dry hopping in the fermenter produces another difficult cleaning job. Pelletised hops are generally hosed out with very little effort.

It is advisable to use a muslin bag when dry hopping with whole-leaf and to weigh down the buoyant leaves ensuring that they are wetted and that the flavour gets into the liquid. This means you typically need to use more 10-15% more hops (because of the muslin bag retaining some flavour) increasing the cost of dry hopping with whole leaf hops.

Pellets, on the other hand, avoid many of these problems. They are small and easy to handle, and for home brewers, they eliminate most of the issues you will have with whole-leaf hops in the dry-hopping process. They also soak up less wort than whole-leaf hops, leaving you with more beer! The one problem with pellets is that they give of more trub if used loose in for example a dry hopping situation.

This may lead to some clogging issues similarly to whole-leaf hops, but these can be solved by using a muslin bag when brewing and/or by using a strainer on your siphon when siphoning the beer. Also, you should make sure to use a finer strainer when brewing with pellets so that less hop matter transfers to the bottle.

In short: Choose pellets (most of the time)

The bottom line is that pellets are not only easier to store and to use; they are more consistent when it comes to their flavour and they actually give off more flavour – seemingly contrary to popular belief among some brewers. While there definitely is something to be said for the romantic factor of using whole leaf hops “the way it has always been”, and they do give off better floral notes for example, pelletised hops in our opinion win in the long run on usability, storability, cost effectiveness and most importantly the end result.

I may be harbouring a certain bias because when I started brewing full time professionally on the 13^th of August 1979 at a brewery with a German designed brewhouse it was specially designed for pelletised hops. It was several years before I became familiar with the problems associated with whole hop usage.

Written by our friend George Thompson Brewing Consultant

Organic Malt

The importance of agricultural sustainability and the environment is becoming more and more apparent in the world today. Crisp Organic Malt is produced from barley that is certified as grown using environmentally friendly farming methods. These farms are certified by the Soil Association in the United Kingdom and globally recognised.

We have added the whole range of Organic Malts from Crisp Maltings

Available in Ale and Extra Pale and Crystal - Whole or Crushed fresh prior to dispatch

To ensure Crisp Organic Barley maintains its Organic state throughout malting, their malting plant in Great Ryburgh also endures strict inspections and standards to make sure there is clear segregation between products throughout the process.

How To Read Malt Analysis

Colour: In most of the world, colour is measured according to a visual method developed by the European Brewing Convention (expressed as EBC units).

In the US, malt colour is expressed in terms of the Standard Research Method (SRM) set by the ASBC or in °Lovibond, an older method of visual measurement upon which SRM is based.

The formula °EBC = (°L X 2.65) gives a reasonably accurate conversion to °Lovibond values.

Moisture content: The closer a malt is to 1.5% MC, the less it risks mould growth and the less flavour and aroma it will lose over time

Hot water extract (HWE): Indicates how many litres of wort at S.G. 1.001 a kilogram of a malt will give at 65 °C, and reports it as hot water extract, or L°/kg.

HWE for two-row lager or pale ale malt should not be less than 300 at 0.2mm grind or 295 at 0.7mm grind.

Grind difference (% FG/CG): The fine grind/coarse grind (FG/CG) difference indicates the modification of the malt.

A "steely" malt, one suitable only for a mash cycle that includes a protein rest, will have an FG/CG difference of 1.8-2.2%, while a mealy and well-modified malt suited to infusion mashing will have an FG/CG difference of 0.5-1.0%.

Cold water extract (CWE): British maltsters rarely give FG/CG values; instead, they usually quote CWE. The CWE is the amount of extract that is soluble in cold water 20 °C, and this value has a loose relationship to the FG/CG difference as an indicator of malt modification. A CWE of 19-23% indicates the malt is acceptable for infusion mashing; lower values indicate the need for low-temperature mash rests.

Protein or Nitrogen (%): Because proteins are made of nitrogen-based compounds such as amino acids, maltsters use protein and nitrogen values interchangeably; each 1% of nitrogen equals 6.25% of protein.

European lager and British ale malts are usually below 1.6% TN. One of the major reasons brewers prefer these malts for all-malt beers is because their protein levels are adequate for head-formation, body, and healthy fermentation, yet low enough to present less chill haze potential than high-protein North American malts. When adjuncts are used, malts of more than 1.6% TN are required to achieve acceptable head, body, and yeast nutrition.

Soluble nitrogen (% TSN): The amount of nitrogen in soluble form, expressed as a percentage of malt weight. The TSN parameters are used to calculate the soluble nitrogen ratio.

Soluble Nitrogen Ratio (% SNR): This ratio (SN/TN [soluble nitrogen/total nitrogen], or Kolbach Index) is calculated by dividing the soluble nitrogen value by the percent total nitrogen.

The SNR is an important indicator of malt modification. The higher the number, the more highly modified the malt. Malts destined for infusion mashing should have an SNR of 36-42%, or up to 45% for light-bodied beer. At a percentage much over 45% SNR, the beer will be thin in body and mouthfeel. For traditional lager malts, 30-33% indicates under modification, and 37-40% indicates over modification.

Brewers can take account of increases in SNR by adding low-temperature rests. Conversely, a decrease in SNR can be allowed for by shortening the duration of low-temperature rests.

Starch conversion: Diastatic power (DP) expresses the strength of starch-reducing enzymes in the malt and is measured in oWindisch–Kolbach ( oWK) in Europe or °Lintner in the US. The diastatic power, considered together with mealiness/steeliness, indicates how well a malt will respond to mashing. For conversion oWK = (3.5 x oLintner) - 16

Screenings: this figure should be as low as possible indicating that the maltster has cleaned the malt adequately and you are not paying for excessive unproductive dust.

Friability is the measure of a malt's readiness to crumble when subjected to crushing. Any malt should be at least 80% friable; for infusion mashing, malt should be at least 85% friable, in my experience 90%’ would be preferable. This measurement puts a figure on chewing the malt – it is always worth checking the quoted figure against a chew of five or six corns and storing the feel of the chew away in your memory!

George Thompson our friend has kindly written this article he has been a brewer and subsequent brewing consultant for his whole career, he always tells me UK malts are the superior malts for brewing.

Beer Recipes Design

Starting point

Start by choosing a beer style. The beer style no longer defines the beer in the way it may have done in my early days as a brewer, there is plenty of room for imagination, rather the beer style creates the baseline to build from.

Internet sources (many are American so not always totally reliable from our perspective) will give you a guide to lots of beer styles. They will give suggestions on the range of colour and bitterness as well as strength, OG and PG etc. Another way to start is when you come across a beer that you really like - see if you can reproduce your version. Either by taste and see if you can guess the various ingredients and their proportions or by finding out a little more about the beer. Many publications claim to list the recipes of commercial beers. These are sometimes surprisingly accurate, especially if they have been provided by the brewer. They can also be a little misleading – I have seen published recipes for beers that I was once responsible for which bore no relation to the actual recipe. There are also beer recipe designing books – I have never read any so cannot comment.

The Ingredients

Beer is brewed with water, malt and hops with, occasionally, spices and of course fermented with yeast. All of these ingredients contribute to the final beer taste. It is worth doing a bit of research to determine what ingredients are typically used your target beer style, and in what proportions. At this stage it is easier to work in percentages for the malt grist for example 90% pale ale malt, 7% crystal malt and 3% roast barley etc.. As a rule, traditionally about 90% of the malt is normally the main or base malt there for flavour colour and fermentable sugars with the other 10% of malts there for flavour and colour. You will find a lot of new wave American influenced recipes with lower base malt % and consequently higher coloured malt % but trust me for the most part this is a passing fashion. By all means experiment but too much flavour is not always a good thing.

Having determined the ingredients and proportions that are appropriate to the beer style you are a long way towards producing a recipe which will taste the way it should.

Getting the numbers right

You have selected your list of ingredients and have the proportions roughly correct. It is now time to use a spreadsheet or program such as Brewers Friend or BeerSmith, and see how the numbers look. I still prefer to use an excel spreadsheet that I have been using for the last 20 years. Before that as a young brewer I used a pencil, paper and a calculator and spend many hours adjusting recipes until my Production Director was happy that he had asked me to try every single permutation he could think of. I take issue with some of the results you are given by the above mentioned online calculators but eventually you will have to brew the beer and see what it looks and tastes like and then make any alterations you think are needed. The calculators often try to take account of the equipment you will be using and offer all sorts of different ways of mashing and wort running this may help if you are using a system which affects the extract efficiency etc. I tend to keep to isothermal mashing, continuous sparging and balanced with wort running. However I have the luxury of a miniature scaled down traditional ale brewery which allows me to brew much like a commercial ale brewer.

With the numbers from your calculator now confirming the OG, PG, abv, colour and bitterness that you should expect from the recipe it is time to make any adjustments so that you get closer to what you had intended.

Original Gravity or OG is an indication of the amount of fermentable and unfermentable sugar you will extract. The original gravity along with the PG determines how much potential alcohol the recipe will produce.

Present Gravity or PG (sometimes referred to as the Final Gravity or FG) This figure determines the sweetness or dryness of the beer as well as the alcohol. A higher PG will give you a sweeter beer with less alcohol and vice versa. Lagers and IPAs tend to have a lower PG and full-bodied ales and stouts tend to have a higher PG. You can control this to some extent by adjusting the mash temperature to alter the fermentability. The choice of yeast will also have a big influence The yeast attenuation refers to the percentage of sugars consumed by the yeast, and some styles require high attenuating yeast to achieve a clean flavour, while others require a low attenuating yeasts for a more complex flavour.

Bitterness (IBU in the USA, EBU everywhere else but as far as we are concerned the same) Bitterness from hops balances the malty flavour from the malts and the fruity etc. flavours from the yeast. The alpha acid content of your hops and how your equipment interacts with the hops will allow you to calculate the bitterness. I use a simple bitterness calculation that I have been using for almost 40 years it never agrees with the fancy calculators on the internet but it works for me.

Colour (SRM Lovibond in the USA, EBC everywhere else) – You can calculate the colour of your beer from the grist used. Estimating the colour is important because we drink with our eyes as well as smell and taste.

Bitterness Ratio (IBU/GU) – The bitterness ratio gives you a very rough measurement of the bitterness to malt balance for the recipe.

Carbonation (Vols or g/l) (1 vol = 1.96 g/l) The carbonation of your beer should match the style. Carbonation is commonly measured in volumes, where one volume would essentially be a litre of carbon dioxide gas dissolved into a litre of beer. Fermented beer at room temperature and open to the atmosphere contains about 1.0 volumes of CO₂. Traditional English ales are often served with only the benefit of natural carbonation developed in the cask at 1.5 vols while many German beers are highly carbonated (up to 3.0 vols). If you research the style, you can often determine the traditional carbonation level for the beer.

Brewing Techniques

After you have the proper ingredients and have balanced the recipe by the numbers, the final step is to look at the techniques needed to brew this style of beer. Different styles definitely require application of a variety of brewing techniques. Some of the techniques to consider include:

• Hop Techniques ­– A variety of hop techniques are available. Examples include first wort hopping, dry hopping, late hop additions, bittering hops, and use of a hopback. Different beer styles require different methods to achieve the appropriate balance.
• Mash Techniques – For all grain and partial mash brewers, adjusting your mash temperature is critical to achieving the appropriate body for your beer. Lower mash temperature during the main conversion step will result in a lower body beer and higher mash temperatures result in more body. In addition, advanced brewers may want to consider advanced techniques like decoction mashing or programme mashing if appropriate to the style.
• Fermenting, Lagering and Aging – The temperature for fermenting your beer should be appropriate for the yeast and beer you are using. Yeast manufacturers as well as most brewing software publish appropriate temperature ranges for fermentation of each yeast. Aging and lagering should also match your target style.

Beer design is partly art, and partly science, which for me makes it the interesting and enjoyable hobby it is.

If you do your homework, select quality ingredients, run the numbers and follow good brewing techniques you can make fantastic beer at home using your own recipes.

Written by our friend George Thompson ( Master Brewer & Brewing Consultant )

The application of water treatment

Water treatment is all too often not given the attention it deserves by craft and home brewers. Some even justify their lack of understanding by condemning the use of “chemicals”.

If you want to brew beer that is not thin, watery, and lacking in character read on.

The application of water treatment for brewing is actually simple.

Around 95% of beer is water. As a young brewer I was taught that I should taste the water for every brew. The quality of the water you use to brew with will have a direct influence on the quality of the beer. Water treatment seeks to both correct undesirable water content and add in missing desirable content. Think of water treatment as if you were preparing a surface for painting – through preparation will yield the best results.

In medieval times, monks would taste the local water and from that decided whether it was suitable for brewing and indeed which style of beer it might best produce. After almost 40 years of professional brewing, I can taste water and determine at least some of its chemistry but that is no substitute for a water analysis from your water supply company. The standard water analysis will tell you some things and may alert you to a potential problem, but if you ask as well as the standard analysis they should be able to supply you with a list of the ions in their water that are important and you need to know about for brewing, more on this later.

The first treatment you need to consider for your brewing water is the removal of chlorine and chloramine. These are added by water companies as disinfectants. If these are not removed, they will react and cause off flavours most typically a chlorophenolic taste, which is not pleasant. Remember to treat all water involved in brewing not just the mash liquor.

Removal is simple either add the required level of crushed Campden tablets (1 tablet per 50L of water) the active sulphur dioxide diminishes rapidly as it reacts with chlorine and chloramine or alternatively pre filter your water with an active carbon filter.

Next let us look at mash pH – this is most influenced by alkalinity caused by carbonate and bicarbonate and if these ions are in sufficient concentration, you will need to remove them. This is most conveniently done by reacting with an acid. The amount of acid required is directly proportional to the alkalinity of the water the water companies will often express this as the concentration of carbonate (C03) or bicarbonate (HCO3). The aim here is to achieve a mash pH of 5.2 to 5.4. I prefer to use phosphoric acid if acid is needed to treat alkalinity where it is necessary this is because it does not significantly affect the taste or the sulphate chloride balance however other more easily obtained products are available such as, AMS which will also add sulphates and chlorides as it is a combination of hydrochloric and sulphuric acid. I would make any acid addition to the brewing liquor (mash and sparge liquor) not to the mash.

Since alkalinity in water can vary, it is important to check the mash pH as a routine.

I would recommend that you use an online water calculator to calculate all of your additions.

As discussed above if your water has high alkalinity and you want to brew a pale ale then you will need to add acid to reduce your pH. However, if you have low alkalinity you may need to add sodium carbonate to increase your pH when brewing a dark beer. This is because dark malts reduce the mash pH.

With your mash pH under control, you can look at the other important ions in your water. The ions which are relevant for brewing are Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Chloride (Cl), Sulphate (SO4) and Sodium (Na).

Calcium – The ideal range is 100 – 200 ppm. Low levels of calcium will cause fermentation and clarification problems. Calcium is most easily added to the mash as Calcium Chloride and Calcium Sulphate (gypsum). The choice being whether you also want to add sulphate or chlorides or both see below.

Magnesium – Not above 10 ppm. Magnesium effects the alkalinity of the water although nothing like as much as calcium. Magnesium provides nutrition for the yeast and so aids healthy fermentation. Epsom Salts (magnesium sulphate) is usually added to increase magnesium and sulphate levels. Personally, I do not like the taste of magnesium and would avoid adding it but would accept natural magnesium below 10ppm.

Chloride and Sulphate – These two ions work together and will determine the flavour and character of your beer. The addition ratio will highlight the malt or the hop flavours in the beer. More sulphate will bring out the hops and bitterness and will create a hard dryness. More chloride will bring out the malt flavours and create a soft sweetness. A possible ratio for a hoppy beer would be 200 ppm sulphate : 100 ppm chloride. If you want more malt flavour then 150 ppm sulphate: 150ppm chloride would work better. As with all brewing taste the result and make alterations if you are not happy. As already inferred, the easiest way to add chloride and sulphate is as calcium chloride and calcium sulphate (gypsum).

Sodium – up to 100 ppm sodium increases the mouthfeel and fullness but too much will cause an unpleasant salty flavour. Common salt (sodium chloride) can be used to add sodium but note this will also add chloride. Avoid brewing with water that has been softened as the softening process adds a lot of salt. Personally I would avoid adding sodium to my brewing water.

In summary.

Obtain a water analysis from your water supply company including the important brewing ions as follows: Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Sulphate, Chloride, Hydrogen (pH), Bicarbonate (HCO3)

Then use an online water calculator to help determine what treatments are relevant to your recipe.

Finally taste the result and adjust if not quite right.

Written by our friend George Thompson (Master Brewer & Brewing Consultant)