Water & Soil

When people in Blumenau talk about water, they first mean the river. The Itajaí-Açu flows right through the city, and its floods are part of the city's history. A severe flood was the reason for the first Oktoberfest, meant to revive the economy after the disaster.

The surrounding area is hilly and covered with humid coastal forest, the Mata Atlântica. It rains a lot, summers are muggy, and the valleys stay damp for long stretches. That makes storage a matter of technique: without refrigeration, beer would age quickly here, so it goes to market and into the glass cold.

How hard or soft the water is at individual breweries says little about the beer. Almost all modern operations treat their water, softening it or adding salts as needed. This allows a soft lager to be brewed just as easily as a sour wheat beer.

Still, the cityscape recalls the settlers' origins: half-timbered houses, German-style beer halls, and a railway yard where Eisenbahn got its name. For the flavor, what happens in the brewhouse matters more here than what comes from the soil.

During floods, it becomes clear how closely the city and the river are linked. Residents know the water levels, and the memory of the floods is still alive in Blumenau. Oktoberfest is part of that memory: it celebrates the fresh start after the water, with a beer in hand and German music in the ear. The beer itself needs no river water for that, just a clean, consistent source.