Water & Soil

What water goes into Palatinate and Saarland beer? Well and spring water from the region, filtered through the ground below. Large parts of the Palatinate Forest and the surrounding landscape consist of red sandstone, a rock that soaks up groundwater across many hectares like a sponge.

The Palatinate Forest is considered Germany's largest contiguous forested area. Rain seeps down here through woodland and rock, and what emerges at the bottom is usually cool and clean. The Bischoff brewery in Winnweiler states that it uses clear spring water from the surrounding area as an ingredient.

Comparing hardness values between breweries is nearly impossible, since almost none of them use the water unchanged. They treat it instead: removing hardness-forming minerals or adding salts until the water suits the style they want. For a pilsner, the water should lean soft, otherwise brewers say the bitterness turns harsh and scratchy.

The landscape also shapes everyday brewery life. The Saarland is hilly and forested, a region with an industrial past where coal and steel long defined its character. The Palatinate, by contrast, lies between the Rhine plain and the Haardt mountains, with vines on the sunny slopes and grain growing in the flatlands.

Today, beer is aged almost everywhere in modern stainless steel tanks at temperatures near freezing. Rock cellars like those found in Franconia are rare here. So the beer doesn't mature inside a mountain, but in a hall, with refrigeration providing the chill.