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Episode #60 - Beer Brewing Water with John Palmer

BeerSmith

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Brewing Water for Beer with John Palmer - BeerSmith Episode #60

    http://beersmith.com/blog/2013/05/28/beer-brewing-water-with-john-palmer-beersmith-podcast-60/

Cheers,
Brad
 
As someone who nerds out over topics like brewing water I really enjoyed this episode.  Its really cool that John Palmer has continued to learn about this topic to the point of having to correct much of what he had previously written about.  One piece of conventional wisdom that i was surprised he hasn't abandoned is the notion that beer styles developed as a response to water profiles and residual alkalinity.  Maybe the argument can be made for some obscure styles but it is clearly false for the example he cited.  The development of dry stout had nothing to do with Dublin's water supply.  The only reason dry stout is associated with Dublin is Guinness but Guinness doesn't use Dublin water but soft Wicklow water.  The argument should be over there but historically it makes no sense either- when Guinness started brewing in 1759, they brewed dark beer because EVERYONE brewed dark beer with 100% brown malt.  To try to explain the reason Guinness is still black as a function of residual alkalinity is to ignore a complex history of cultural preference, corporate dominance, taxation, marketing, etc.
 
Too bad you don't plan these podcasts out and give users a chance to pick some questions.

Love to see beersmith expand into being more of a water tool. Including predicting recipe's grain effects on mash ph(based on user's water), chloride sulfate ratio, and acid/carbonate additions.
 
derspatero said:
is to ignore a  history of cultural preference, corporate dominance, taxation, marketing, etc.

Fully agree Derspatero! To try to understand and explain beer brewing from only the process side is a to narrow approach.
 
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