Water & Soil

Why does Dortmunder Export taste so round and malt-forward, rather than lean like a Pilsner? Part of the answer lies in the brewing water. The water around Dortmund is considered hard and mineral-rich. Hard means it carries a lot of dissolved lime and gypsum — in other words, calcium, sulfate, and chloride.

We deliberately avoid citing exact figures here, since the tables in old reference books contradict one another. What's certain is the effect. Sulfate accentuates bitterness, making it seem drier and sharper, sometimes with a subtle hint of salt. Calcium helps the enzymes during mashing and makes the wort clearer.

For a Bohemian-style Pils, this was a problem. That style needs very soft water so the hops stay clean and finely bitter. With Dortmund's hard water, brewing such a beer proved difficult. So the city's brewers took a different path: they emphasized the malt and used somewhat less hops. Out of necessity, a style of its own was born.

Coolness also mattered for shelf life. In the fermentation cellar of the Dortmunder U, the Union Brewery's high-rise built in 1927, the beer could ferment and mature in the cool. The city itself lies on the Hellweg, between the Ruhr to the south and the Emscher to the north.

Today, almost all breweries treat their water, either softening it or adding salts. So Dortmunder water no longer needs to come from beneath the city itself to produce a Dortmunder Export. The water shaped the style as the city invented it in the 19th century. With modern technology, brewers can now recreate it almost anywhere.