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Some of New England's leading breweries will compete Oct. 1 to see who can turn the questionable water of Boston's Charles River into the tastiest suds.
Six area breweries have signed on for the first ever "Brew the Charles" challenge, a highlight of HUBweek, a weeklong Boston-area festival celebrating innovation in art, science and technology.
Nadav Efraty, CEO of Desalitech, a Massachusetts water treatment company that's sponsoring the competition, hopes it helps spotlight the importance of water conservation and water-saving technologies.
"We're having fun here, but at the end of the day, we want to educate the public and decisionmakers," he said. "We're all efficient with our energy because we know it has environmental and financial costs. We need to think exactly the same way about water."
The river, which winds through 23 Massachusetts communities before ending in Boston Harbor, has come a long way since it gained notoriety in "Dirty Water," the Standells' 1960s hit and one of Boston's adopted theme songs.
After kayaking on the Charles two weeks ago, I can't recommend anyone drink this beer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Saturday September 17 2016, @02:48PM
many modern microbrews (i should put the micro in quotes, but hey...), are filtered or sometimes centifuged, to remove yeast (and all bacteria).
Interesting though, that if you have fruity/tasty, not bitter beer the centrifugation removes the flavour molecules - a neat thing I learnt visiting one of the "not-at-all" microbrews in Boston.
Besides, so long as it's not lite, I'd probably risk it ;-)
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Saturday September 17 2016, @03:49PM
Yes, I am the same FatPhil as the #2 on this list: http://www.ratebeer.com/Users/CompanyOthers.asp
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Saturday September 17 2016, @04:00PM
of course the boiling kills a lot of things (without pressure it's not 100% effective). However, adding the yeast adds another source of contamination....
And if you've seen some breweries, not exactly labs....
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday September 18 2016, @07:04PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Informative) by Nerdfest on Saturday September 17 2016, @04:05PM
The big producers also use reverse osmosis and other processes to treat the water, as you need to get the mineral content right to get *really* good beers of each type. Generally you target the mineral content of the original region the beer was made in. It's a very controlled process at the big brewers, and even some of the smaller ones.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Saturday September 17 2016, @04:39PM
that was where I was going with my comment, only keeping it general for those that are not biochemists. In fact the centrifugation was a surprise until I saw it - really large versions of my tiny lab one!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 18 2016, @11:23PM
Hats off to the big producers, for doing what's necessary to get *really* good beers.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday September 17 2016, @08:55PM
Boiling kills any germs that might be present in the water, but it doesn't remove pollution. Things like mercury, lead, petroleum products and various pharmaceutical products amongst other things.
A good filter can remove most of that stuff or in extreme cases there's distillation, but that's not going to be cost effective.
(Score: 2) by chewbacon on Sunday September 18 2016, @02:17PM
Those fruity flavors can come from fermentation. When it comes down to water it only needs to be clean and taste ok. You only have issues with water and flavor if you're brewing something that has to be really crisp and clean like a pale lager. But yeah, the boil plays into it too: a real aggressive boil and a good hit break, then chill it quick to get the cold break. It'll go a long way for clarity.