/tags/water-quality/Recent content in Water Quality on FermentHiveHugoen-usTue, 05 May 2026 19:08:00 +0100/ingredients-deep-dive/water-quality-chlorine-fermentation/Wed, 06 May 2026 19:08:00 +0100/ingredients-deep-dive/water-quality-chlorine-fermentation/<p>London, September 1854. A single contaminated water pump on Broad Street, Soho killed 616 people in ten days. Dr. John Snow traced every death back to that one source — proving that waterborne pathogens, not &ldquo;bad air,&rdquo; caused cholera. The data he compiled also revealed something fermenters still discover the hard way: what’s in your water determines what survives in your ferment. Victorian home fermenters who relied on well water or spring-collected sources saw reliable results. Those who switched to the increasingly chlorinated municipal supply — which cities adopted within decades of Snow’s work — reported stalled batches and dead cultures long before they had the chemistry to explain why. Snow’s investigation predates modern understanding of chloramine by 140 years. The principle is identical: water quality for fermentation is not a secondary concern. It’s the foundation everything else sits on.</p>