Originally the ingredients were water, malt and hops, which was only three, but in the 17th century when yeast was discovered, that was necessarily added to make four. By restricting the use of adjuncts and additives, you can be sure that German beers, working under these constraints, are not going to be made with cheaper, alternate ingredients.

These are the bare bones of what you need to make beer, so what do we want to know about these ingredients? I think pretty much everyone will find it obvious that water is by far the one that carries the most weight as it represents 85 per cent to 95 per cent of your beer. OK, so it makes up most of orange juice, too, so what’s so important about it for beer?

As it turns out, there are a lot of water factors to consider when a brewery is setting up shop to start making beer.

If we back up a ways and look at some famous examples from history, we see that there was more to consider than just the cleanliness of the water. You may remember Pilzen, Czech Republic, where the original pilsners came from; their water was special. We know that these lagers are very clean, with little distraction from anything other than the crisp aromas from the Saaz hops balanced by the bready malt. Part of what helps create that character is very soft water that has very low mineral content.

Most lager styles benefit from soft water to help keep the clean and uncluttered flavour profiles they are famous for.

Perhaps the most famous place in terms of the water is Burton-on-Trent in England where they can trace brewing back to an abbey in 1004; that’s 1,000 years of beer in that little town. It’s been famous for its beer dating back as far as 1295, showing up in some written accounts praising the local ales.

What makes this water so special? Unlike Pilsen, the Burton water is very hard with high levels of calcium and magnesium sulfates. This helped beer by promoting protein coagulation which allowed high hop usage and also promoted yeast growth. The beers that came out of here were clear sparkling ales, and when India Pale Ales were being created this area turned out some of the best examples.

Where does water put us today? As it turns out, brewers have known about treating water since the 19th century for desired brewing characteristics, and in today’s world even homebrewers are in the game.

Some aspects of water need to be cleaned or filtered to remove unwanted elements, such as chlorine. If you have a chlorinated city water supply you need to remove the chlorine before you brew or you might end up with off flavours commonly referred to as phenolic Band-Aid — they taste as bad as they sound.

What if a brewer has soft water and wants to brew British ales? Now it is easy for any brewer to get ready-made products to “Burtonize” water, which will result in added calcium, sulfate and chloride ions to help create those styles of beer. Some places go as far as getting pure iceberg water to create their own special beers with unique characters, and many other brewers will play with their water treatments to achieve their own special beers.

The possibilities seem almost endless and we’re still only at the first ingredient. Doesn’t it make you want to open a beer to sip on as you ponder the possibilities?

Mike Buhler is a certified cicerone. Email him at mike@beerthief.ca, or check out beerthief.ca for information on beer club offerings.