I was formerly a consultant to AB's Jacksonville brewery and the American Lager profile is from that brewery. They use a nanofiltration process (essentially a coarse RO system) to process their relatively minerallized groundwater for their brewing uses. I was very surprised to see that this was the water they brew with, but they apparently don't add any additional calcium to the water for brewing since I would have detected it in the wastewater.
There are impacts from brewing with a water with low calcium, some good and some bad. Clearly, we know that Pilsen brewers use a low calcium water successfully and I know that AB does too. There are flavor benefits from the reduced mineralization in that there are fewer ions to color the beer flavor.
But, there is one aspect that can be troublesome to anyone without great cleaning practices...beerstone. The low calcium level does not provide the best opportunity to precipitate calcium oxalate during the mash. Therefore, the potential for beerstone formation is increased. I would have to say that AB probably has excellent clean-in-place machinery and procedures, so the opportunity for beerstone formation is significantly reduced. For homebrewers, that might not be the case. Thus the reason I recommend a minimum of 40 ppm Ca to help avoid beerstone formation in the first place.
The other reason to have a more elevated Ca content is to promote yeast health and flocculation. Considering that these major lager breweries are certainly pitching large yeast amounts so yeast health and yeast multiplication during the ferment may not be such an issue for them. These breweries also have sometimes elaborate fining methods and filtering, that solves the flocculation problem.
I can't say that I recommend either the Pilsen or American Lager water profiles, but I can't argue with the success of those beers and their fine and delicate flavor. I included the AB profile only because I had it and knew it was factual. If a brewer can deal with the potential limitations from brewing with low Ca water, then it should produce a more delicate flavored beer. Do be careful with taking this to the extreme since I have had beers made with straight RO or distilled water and I was not impressed with the lack of flavor.
Enjoy!
There are impacts from brewing with a water with low calcium, some good and some bad. Clearly, we know that Pilsen brewers use a low calcium water successfully and I know that AB does too. There are flavor benefits from the reduced mineralization in that there are fewer ions to color the beer flavor.
But, there is one aspect that can be troublesome to anyone without great cleaning practices...beerstone. The low calcium level does not provide the best opportunity to precipitate calcium oxalate during the mash. Therefore, the potential for beerstone formation is increased. I would have to say that AB probably has excellent clean-in-place machinery and procedures, so the opportunity for beerstone formation is significantly reduced. For homebrewers, that might not be the case. Thus the reason I recommend a minimum of 40 ppm Ca to help avoid beerstone formation in the first place.
The other reason to have a more elevated Ca content is to promote yeast health and flocculation. Considering that these major lager breweries are certainly pitching large yeast amounts so yeast health and yeast multiplication during the ferment may not be such an issue for them. These breweries also have sometimes elaborate fining methods and filtering, that solves the flocculation problem.
I can't say that I recommend either the Pilsen or American Lager water profiles, but I can't argue with the success of those beers and their fine and delicate flavor. I included the AB profile only because I had it and knew it was factual. If a brewer can deal with the potential limitations from brewing with low Ca water, then it should produce a more delicate flavored beer. Do be careful with taking this to the extreme since I have had beers made with straight RO or distilled water and I was not impressed with the lack of flavor.
Enjoy!