Water & Soil

What kind of water is allowed? The dukes specified only 'water' in 1516. The territorial ordinance says nothing about hardness, origin, or treatment—and that holds true today: the Reinheitsgebot defines what goes into beer, not what the water itself must be like.

Ingolstadt has good raw material for this. According to the Ingolstadt municipal utilities, the city's drinking water comes from its own nearby wells. Four waterworks draw it, partly as karst water from depths of 115 to 237 meters, and partly from the gravel layers of the Danube plain at just 9.5 to 13 meters.

It's hard water. The municipal utilities cite about 21 degrees of German hardness, with roughly 90 milligrams of calcium and 36 milligrams of magnesium per liter. Hardness means a lot of dissolved lime and magnesium. That can be annoying in your kettle, but whether it benefits beer depends on the style.

Carbonate-rich water has traditionally suited dark malts better, since their acidity buffers the lime. For a very pale, hop-forward beer like Pilsner from Pilsen, soft water is the traditional choice. This doesn't describe the brewing water of any particular Ingolstadt brewery, though. Today, nearly all breweries treat their water, softening or blending it as needed.

The Danube flows through the city and gave it trade, a fortress, and a ducal seat, from the Herzogskasten on Theaterplatz to the city walls. In the 1516 decree, the river isn't an ingredient for brewing—it's a trade route. A style that speaks purely from the local terroir would be a myth here. Water is simply one of three ingredients the law allows you to name.