Water & Soil

Brandenburg is sand country, and beneath the sand lies groundwater. Bergquell in Löbau cites its own well as part of its water management. Having a private source, though, doesn't mean the water reaches the brew kettle unaltered.

Which hardness makes which beer is an old question. Soft water suits pale, hop-forward beers. Water rich in carbonates supports dark malts, which is why Dunkel, Porter, and Stout have long been considered beers of hard-water wells. We have no verified water analyses for the Lausitz, and brewers today treat their water regardless, whether through softening or salt additions. The idea that terroir dictates style belongs to the past.

What genuinely does depend on place, however, is the cellar. At Landskron in Görlitz, the fermentation rooms from 1869 are a protected heritage site. The brewery states that beer ages there in cellars 12 meters deep, for around 40 days. That's longer than many breweries allow their lager beer.

The reason is simple. Deep underground, temperatures stay cool year-round without anyone needing electricity for refrigeration, and the yeast works slowly and cleanly. Before refrigeration existed, this was the only way to have pale lager in summer.

How hard the water is in Neuzelle, Görlitz, or Löbau isn't quantified in the sources available to us. So we won't give a figure—instead, we'll note this: with these beers, what you taste above all is the malt and the long aging, not the well.