Water Works

The Best Brewers Know: Good Beer Starts at the Source

- Christian DeBenedetti

TO MAKE A single 12-ounce can of beer takes about 60 ounces of fresh water, a five-to-one ratio. It adds up, especially when you consider that the U.S. produces more than six billion gallons of beer each year. Despite the West’s exceptionally wet winter, the nation’s supply of potable water isn’t getting any bigger, or safer. So brewers across the country are thinking about how that water is used and what exactly constitutes fresh.