The Beer-Water Connection

Chaz Benedict, application development manager in the Beverage Applications Unit at Hach Company, sits down with Todd and Todd of Water Online Radio for a discussion on beer, soft drinks, and more beer. The true focus, however, is water quality and treatment in the beverage industry, and how it manifests itself in the final product.

The following is an excerpt from the Q&A. Click on the Radio Player above to hear the full interview.

Water Online Radio: Todd and I are very familiar with Hach as an organization, but go a little deeper into the other work you’re doing at Beverage Applications.

Chaz: Hach is really a water quality company. It looks at wastewater and drinking water, and, of course, helping brewers with their incoming water and with their effluent. When they acquired the Orbisphere group, Hach acquired the ability to do dissolved gas measurements within the liquids.

Also within the beverage group we have ozone with municipal drinking water, bottled water, and then with the soft drink group we’re looking at issues with CO2 content. Specifically for the soft drink guys, their soft drinks are so acidic that they’ll eat the inside of the aluminum.

All aluminum cans have a bit of a polymer coating on the inside. These guys are really concerned about O2 in their cans because the acid is so aggressive. If there’s too much, it will pinhole the can. My heart’s definitely with the brewing and beer.

Water Online Radio: Talk about a man after my own heart. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and consuming beer myself. Two part question, Chaz: With all the beer I consumed, I never thought once about beer oxidation, so why is that important to me as a consumer of beer? And, more importantly, the whole craft brewing segment of the market is exploding – why is this issue important to them?