Water & Soil

Düsseldorf sits flat on the Rhine, and the small Düssel river, which gives the city its name, flows right through the city center into the larger river. On ground made of river gravel and sand, there are no rock cellars like those found in Franconia or Bavaria. This shapes how beer is brewed and stored here.

The breweries rarely publish which water each house uses or how hard it is. Reliable figures aren't available, so claims found online should be treated with skepticism. What's certain is that nearly all breweries today treat their water, either softening it or adjusting it with salts as needed. The old saying that water determines the style is, for Düsseldorf, now really just a piece of history.

What the flat terrain does still lend the beer is its method of storage. Instead of deep rock tunnels, Alt matures in the houses' own cellars and rooms, cooled as needed. This allows precise control over the warmth needed first for the top-fermenting yeast, and the cold that follows.

Anyone strolling along the Rhine in the Old Town also understands why beer here feels like such an everyday part of life. The river brought boatmen, traders and thirst, and the pubs lined the lanes leading down to the water. The brewing water itself stays in the background, though — what matters in the glass is malt, hops and yeast. Even the Old Town houses, from Schlüssel to Füchschen, brew with treated water and calibrate it to their recipe, so the Alt tastes the same year after year, no matter how the seasons change the river water.