Water is arguably the most critical and least understood of the foundation elements in brewing beer. Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers, third in Brewers Publications’ Brewing Elements series, takes the mystery out of water’s role in the brewing process. From an overview on sources, quality and geography, the book leads brewers through how to read water reports, understanding flavor contributions, and the treatment and chemistry of brewing water. A discussion of adjusting water to styles of beer, residual alkalinity, malt acidity, mash pH, brewery process water and wastewater treatment is included. By How to Brew author John Palmer and professional brewer Colin Kaminski.
John Palmer
How to Brew author John Palmer was born and raised in Midland, Michigan. He is author of the bestseller How to Brew: Everything You Need to Know to Brew Beer Right the First Time, co-author of both Brewing Classic Styles and Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers.
John was predominately a C student throughout high school and college with occasional spikes into the B range. Speaking on his success in life in general, he credits three critically important pieces of advice he got from two of his teachers and his father:
1. Things are only boring until you learn something about it. Knowledge makes things interesting. (Dr. Richard Hoy – they were discussing his lack of interest in History at the time)
2. Faith and Virtue are rewarded. (constantly uttered by his P-Chem prof, Dr. Leslie Leifer, probably in reference to improving the classes study habits, but still…)
3. Always say “Thank You”. (Joseph Palmer)
John has always been intrigued by science and the way things work. This passion and a desire to work in the space program led him to Michigan Tech where he graduated with a degree in Metallurgical Engineering in the mid-eighties. A lucky break gave him the opportunity to apply for a metallurgical position at a failure analysis lab in Irvine, California, and he has been living in the LA area ever since. During this time he has helped design, build, and inspect hardware that is currently flying on the International Space Station, worked in research and development of orthodontic appliances, awarded two patents, and written three popular books on the brewing of beer. Future writing products will include more brewing books and some steampunk.
Colin Kaminski
Colin Kaminski discovered brewing while briefly dating a woman with a degree in fermentation science from UC Davis. Using one of his first three batches of homebrew, Kaminski applied and was hired at Beer, Beer and More Beer as a product designer. While there, he designed more than 180 products including their Peltier cooled conical fermentor. In 2003, he became the master brewer at Downtown Joe’s Brewery and has brewed more than 800 7bbl batches in nine years as the head of a one man department. Colin has written on a variety of topics including lutherie, holography, solar astronomy and beer. He was awarded the Beer Writers Guild Feature of the Year Award for his BYO article “Bring on the Heat”. He co-authored Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers in 2013 with How to Brew‘s John Palmer.