Water & Soil

Gotland is made up almost entirely of limestone, formed hundreds of millions of years ago on the floor of a warm sea. The raukar, the limestone stacks along the coasts of Gotland and Fårö, tell this story better than any map. The island's brewing water also comes from this same rock.

Water that seeps through limestone picks up dissolved lime and becomes hard. This matters in brewing, since hard water makes hop bitterness taste harsher. With Gotlandsdricka, this hardly matters, because so little hops end up in the kettle, and juniper and smoke dominate the flavor instead.

The island is dry, and groundwater is scarce. Near Slite in the northeast, a cement plant mines limestone; today it belongs to Heidelberg Materials and was formerly known as Cementa. For years, residents and environmental groups have argued over whether the mining is lowering the groundwater table. Courts have ordered the operator to provide alternative solutions for wells that have become unusable.

The rostbunn, a wooden vessel with a tap hole at the bottom, shows how home brewers worked with water. At the bottom lies a lattice of juniper branches, topped with straw, and then the mash. During lautering—separating the sweet wort from the solid spent grain—the liquid runs through the straw and branches, picking up the scent of juniper along the way.

So Gotland's terroir gives the beer two things: the hard water from the limestone, and the juniper that grows on the sparse ground above the rock. Both are part of what makes a beer from the island, whether in Visby or on the farms.