There was just something about this aspect of brewing that was so unappealing to me. While I’d played with adding gypsum and calcium chloride to my brewing liquor or boiling wort, I was hugely intimidated by the world of brewing water, what with its calculations and scientific jargon. The only thing left was fussing with my water. I’d already started buying ingredients in bulk, vacuum sealing hops, and building a library of viable yeast. As I learned the language of my system and honed my technique, I began to wonder what might be left for me to tweak to improve the quality of my beers, what small things I could change that would have a noticeable impact and maybe even bump my comp scores up a bit. I made a couple fantastic beers, a few decent batches, and some total flops. Rightfully so! I’m hardly alone in thinking these 2 process components have contributed more than most anything, just short of proper cleaning and sanitation procedures, to the betterment of my end product. Following my transition to all grain brewing, water chemistry was the last thing on my mind, rather my focus was on fermentation temperature control and yeast health. In the many subsequent extract and steeping grain batches I made, I forgot this mineral addition and never really noticed a difference (as if I was paying much attention). Reading the instructions, I learned it was called “gypsum” and that I was supposed to add it to the boiling wort, that it would improve the flavor of the resultant beer. The first beer I ever made was an Irish Red Ale kit that came with a small baggie of a fine white powdery substance. Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on, a website dedicated to the understanding of brewing ingredients and methods through various “exBEERiments.”
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