Belgian Water Profiles
<editor's note> From an HBD post from Jan Willem van Groenigen A Belgian Homebrewer (Jan Willem van Groenigen) forwarded on some information compiled by a Dutch homebrewer (Jacques Bertens) to the American homebrewing community via the HBD. And here it is in your Hogtown Brewers newsletter. One of the things that I love about homebrewing is the incredible community, it's truly world-wide. This info is invaluable if you want to modify your brew water to match the profile of the Belgian beer you're trying to clone. Even if you don't do this, the chart matching the breweries to regions is interesting as well. Remember, it's a community and you never know when you might be in the 'nieghborhood.' </editor's note>
From: "Groenigen, J.W. van" Subject: water profiles Belgian regions
Hi all,
Jacques Bertens, a Dutch homebrewer with a very informative but
Dutch-language website ( www.hobbybrouwen.nl ) asked me to translate a short
overview of Belgian brewing waters he compiled. As there is not much on the
web on this subject, I think it might be of interest to some of you:
[begin quote]
Below, water profiles of several regions in Belgium are listed. I composed
these water profiles together with Ronald Baert some 5 years ago, based on
information provided by Belgian water companies. We received information
from more than 100 pumping stations. Unfortunately, the information provided
by the Walloon companies wasn't always complete. E.g., sometimes only
hardness was provided. Below, I only listed those pumping stations that
provided full analyses. All data are in mg/kg (ppm) of the cation (so e.g.
Ca, not CaCO3):
Province/region Ca Mg Na SO4 Cl HCO3 Hardness
1. Antwerpen / Anvers 65 7 16 48 30 159 189
2. Brabant 111 12 14 74 40 315 328
3. Henegouwen / Hainaut 113 17 15 65 41 355 351
(Charleroi)
4. Achouffe 29 4 12 12 35 72 87
5. Orval 96 4 5 25 13 287 257
6. Rochefort 82 10 6 32 17 240 246
7. Chimay 70 7 7 21 21 216 203
8. Luik / Liege 60 15 11 28 24 231 213
9. East Flanders 134 22 52 76 47 306 424
10. West Flanders 114 10 125 145 139 370 328
11. Henegouwen / Hainaut 116 25 101 106 45 598 389
(Saisons)
12. Average Ardennes 60 13 11 25 24 213 200
Naturally, the water that is being used by the breweries might deviate
somewhat from these profiles if they have their own wells. However,
generally they should be quite close. I clustered the water profiles as much
as possible according to provinces/regions in Belgium.
Obviously, several different groundwater zones can be delineated from these
data. Along the coast (West Flanders) the water is relatively salt.
According to the literature, Na - ions tend to give a sour taste. This might
partially explain the variety of sour ales (Flemish browns etc.)
traditionally brewed in this part of Belgium. In the eastern part of
Belgium, the water tends to be softer, containing few minerals. The "average
Ardennes" entry is the average of water profiles from Liege, Achouffe,
Orval, Rochefrot and Chimay. Other wells/pumping stations in the Ardennes
(e.g. Spa, Malmedy, La Roche) are also soft and relatively low in minerals.
In order to relate these water profiles to beers that are brewed from it, I
listed the names of well-known breweries located within these areas below:
Breweries located in the regions:
1) West Malle, De Konink, Duvel, Het Anker
2) Belle-Vue, Frank Boon, Cantillon, De Troch, Girardin, Hoegaarden, Palm,
Lefebvre, Drie Fonteyn, Haacht
3) Maes
4) Brasserie d'Achouffe
5) Brasserie d'Orval
6) Abbaye Notre Dame - Rochefort
7) Abbaye de Scourmont - Chimay
8) Jupiler
9) Bios, Bosteels, Crombe, De Ryck, Huyghe, Liefmans, Roman
10) West Vleteren, Bavik, De Dolle Brouwers, De Gouden Boom, Riva,
Rodenbach,
Sint Bernardus, van Eecke, Van Honsebrouck
11) Brasserie de Pipaix, Dubuisson, Dupont, Brasserie de Silly
Jacques
[end quote]
Take care, Jan Willem
Wageningen, the Netherlands
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