Water

By Steve Hobman

In recent times there has been a lot of fuss about water and where it comes from. I'm constantly amazed at the never-ending parade of still and sparkling mineral waters from obscure origins offering obscure characteristics.

But the source of water is not just important for, erm, water, but also beer. 'Liquor' as brewers call it, makes up more than 90 per cent of a pint of beer and plays more than a bit part in the style, flavour and - quite often - the perception of the brew.

Some years ago, when I took the PR shilling from Tetley Walker, hot debates raged re-the merits of Cheshire Tetley and the 'real' stuff from Joshua in Yorkshire. An exceedingly irritable Warrington head brewer often dismissed the beer buffs' alleged differences in taste as 'simply the water'.

Well, that may well be, but therein lies the rub. Many believe that the true provenance of beer lies in the quality and origin of the H₂0. That's why many beer connoisseurs roar like fury if a beer is moved from its place of origin to be brewed with a 'foreign' liquid - and why many took the view that Tetley Bitter could only be brewed in Leeds. By the way, Warrington closed in the nineties while historic Leeds continues a pace - albeit under the Carlsberg banner.

Water has many and varied attributes and it is the rocks and soil of an area that will determine the type of water - hard where rain falls on permeable rock or soft, where the rain does not deeply penetrate rock to pick up the mineral properties. This in its turn will drive the character of the beer. Hard water is heavy in sulphates and chloride that will get the best from the malt and hops to create a good bitter, while soft water, low in salts, is generally more suited to lager style brews.

The midlands brewing mecca of Burton-on-Trent - home of long established Marston's - is, of course, famous for the quality of its water, which percolates down through gypsum beds to deliver traces of calcium sulphate. This lends a sulphurous aroma to the beer known as the 'Burton snatch'.

Brewer of the famous Pedigree ale, Marston's takes water from several different wells and then blends it with the mains supply before boiling to remove carbonates and chlorine.

Since the early days of the commercial brewing many have sought to replicate this effect through the 'Burtonisation' of water, with the addition of salts. These days many of the new wave micro-brewers - and some bigger ones, for instance Cains - take pride in their own private supply of spring water and regard it as crucial to their particular style of beer.

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