Steamin’ up the joint

More duvel is cooling in its carboy right now, bringing me up to 10 gallons of wedding toast beer. I think we’ll call it good at that. All the windows are steamy from so much boiling water, which reminds me of how much water goes into making beer. It’s a little shocking even at the homebrewer level! I use at least 20 gallons of water per 5 gallons of beer made, considering all the washing and sterilizing that goes into brewing drinkable beer. And since I’m using malt extracts, I have no idea how much water was used just to create the syrupy goodness I turn into beer. I can only imagine how much water is used on a commercial scale.

Curious how much water it takes to make 1 pint of beer? Find out on John & Heidi Guenin’s Water Project site. Yeah, it’s a lot of water.