Water & Soil

Why does a brewery sit in Newlands of all places? The answer is Newlands Spring. The spring rises on the slopes of Table Mountain, and the water flows through pipes straight to the brewery. In earlier days, river water was drawn from the Liesbeek; later, Ohlsson switched the beer over to spring water.

The mountain itself is made of hard sandstone. Rain and mist, pushed against the rock face by the southeasterly wind, seep through the stone and emerge further down as spring water. We won't cite precise figures for hardness or mineral content here, as they vary with season and sampling point. As is standard practice everywhere today, the beer is brewed with treated water anyway, ensuring every batch tastes consistent.

The spring gained further fame during the 2018 drought, when Cape Town faced 'Day Zero'—the day the taps were expected to run dry. The brewery responded by bottling spring water instead of beer. Since 2011, there's also been a public tap at the spring's overflow, where people from across the city come to fill up containers.

Water is a precious resource in Cape Town. The Western Cape's winter rains determine, year by year, whether the reservoirs fill, and the drought taught the city to count every liter. That applies to breweries too, which need large volumes of water for wort production, cleaning, and cooling.

Cellar storage in Cape Town can't match the cool conditions found in Franconia. Summers here run dry and warm, with daytime highs in January often topping 25°C (77°F). Bottom-fermenting lager beers therefore need refrigeration systems, just as most breweries worldwide do.