WATER.
The word Liquor is technically applied in the brewery to water. A great deal more importance is attached to the quality of this indispensable article than perhaps it deserves. Many are of opinion that the difference in the flavour and quality of beer proceeds in some measure from the different substances contained in the water used by the brewer. To this opinion we cannot subscribe, for it is possible to suppose that any slight difference discoverable by analysis, in the quantities of carbonates or sulphates which may be dissolved in the water, could possibly affect either the flavour or quality of the beer.
Water, as usually met with, contains the following substances, which may, chemically speaking, be called impurities; namely,
Carbonic acid gas, to which the sparkling appearance of pump or spring water is owing.
Carbonate of lime, which is nearly insoluble in water, but which is often held in solution by excess of carbonic acid. When such water is boiled, the carbonic acid in excess is expelled, and the lime falls down, forming the crust in boilers and other similar vessels.
Sulphate of lime: this salt communicates the “hard” property, as it is called, to water, and is always known to be present, when soap which is dissolved in it curdles.
Besides these impurities, water always contains muriate of soda (common salt), and often other muriates. By using the term impurities, we do not intend to imply that anything exists in the Water, which, when it is drunk, renders it prejudicial: the term simply signifies any substance foreign to the real composition of water. Even rain-water, which is the result of a natural distillation, contains impurities.
Of mineral waters we shall say nothing, as no one could think of employing them in brewing, unless from necessity.
The above mentioned saline substances, we believe, cannot impart any flavour either to the worts or the beer. Carbonate of lime, as above mentioned, is partially separated by boiling, and sulphate of lime may be easily decomposed and the lime separated by a little alkali; as, for instance, by carbonate of soda. We thus reduce the different kinds of water to the same condition, and the products will also be the same.
While brewers and others are continually speaking of the water with which they brew being preferable to any other water, they never think of the difference of the soils on which the barley is grown. Now as the wine from grapes raised on one soil is inferior to wine from grapes produced on another, so every farmer, from experience, will tell you, that such and such soil is not fit for barley; and there can be no doubt that barley grown on certain soils will make inferior malt. In such cases the water used in brewing is often blamed, while the inferior malt, which is the real cause, is blameless.
Stagnant Water.
Many brewers suppose that, by exposing water to the action of the atmosphere for a certain period, they soften it, and make it more fit for the purposes of brewing, and others even prefer stagnant water, even when they have an abundant supply of fine pump-water at command. Exposing spring-water to the atmosphere can do very little harm in winter, and perhaps as little good; but in summer it soon becomes, by exposure, impregnated with filth like stagnant water. Would any one, we ask, after having seen a drop of stagnant water, as exhibited by the oxy-hydrogen microscope, think of using it for brewing, unless from necessity? Yet we have seen people, who were so prejudiced in favour of old customs, as to persist in using it even at considerable expense, and after its baneful effects had been distinctly pointed out, at the same time that they had an abundant supply of fine spring-water always at command, which cost them nothing. There can be no doubt that putrefactive fermentation must at all times, during summer, be going on in all stagnant waters, produced by the falling of leaves, and the depositions of innumerable insects.
This water, we all know, cannot be drunk without prejudice to health; and it is also very unfit for culinary purposes. How then can it be fit for brewing?
In some parts of the kingdom, however, no other water can be procured, and we have seen it impart putrescence to the beer, which could be discovered when smelling or tasting it. In all such cases, the water should be boiled, and allowed to cool naturally before mashing; or still better, a quantity of charcoal and lime should be boiled in it, which will, in some measure, correct the putridity. Would the action of chloride of lime be advantageous in such cases?
Running Water.
Running water from rivers or rivulets, although preferable to stagnant water, is still open to some of the same objections, being liable to contain some organic matter. In the first place, We do not know how many different mineral springs may be discharged into it; and in the next place, it is, in summer, liable to be contaminated with the same impurities as stagnant water, although perhaps not to so great an extent.
We shall sum up the Whole that may be advanced on this subject, by recommending the purest water which can be found, as fittest for brewing; and by stating that spring-water (not mineral) when immediately pumped up, has the best chance of being pure.