It’s been awhile since our last post and I have no excuse other than we’ve been busy! Without further ado, here’s a quick update.
Any brewer worth half his (water) salt will tell you that great beer starts with its primary ingredient. You guessed it, water! With COVID restrictions starting to lift and construction moving forward finally, I am happy to report that the well for the brewery has been completed!
Vicksburg well water tends to be quite hard with carbonates which lends itself to certain beer styles but not others. One challenge was trying to keep iron out as much as possible. While not harmful it detracts from the flavor of the beer in a bad way – unless you are making a Michigan Copperâ„¢ IPA 
. Calcium, often seen as a general nuisance (looking at you water spots) in the right concentrations greatly improves beers like stouts and IPAs.
The new well will need to be periodically tested and it may end up overall that there are too many undesirable flavor compounds, which would mean installing a Reverse Osmosis (RO) system and building up the water chemistry from scratch. This is what many breweries do especially if they are on city water. Nevertheless, the homebrewer in me is positively giddy that I am having a well dug specifically for brewing.
What am I up to these days? I am hard at work prepping the barn for a concrete pour which is a key next step for much of the remaining construction. Stay tuned and cheers!
