FYI: Cologne drinking water

ArcaneXor · 02-16-2009, 10:01 PM

Since Cologne's drinking water chemistry isn't commonly listed in brewing software and books, I did some digging and found the following links:

http://www.rheinenergie.com/download/produkte/wasser/trinkwasser_linksrheinisch.pdf - Left bank of the Rhine (where most breweries are, or at least used to be)
http://www.rheinenergie.com/download/produkte/wasser/trinkwasser_rechtsrheinisch.pdf - Right bank of the Rhine

The text is in German, but the chemical symbols and units should be easy to read. The bold numbers are the measures values (the others are maximum permitted values under whatever law governs water quality in Germany, and are irrelevant for our purposes).

I hope this helps!

I also encourage everyone to post their local water quality reports in the thread linked in my signature to build this database for their fellow brewers.

**EdWort** · 02-16-2009, 10:13 PM

When I lived in Germany, I only drank bottled water. Most of the breweries I visited had their own wells for their water source.

ArcaneXor · 02-17-2009, 12:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EdWort

When I lived in Germany, I only drank bottled water. Most of the breweries I visited had their own wells for their water source.

True, but Cologne municipal water is mostly well water, and it's fairly consistent within the valley that Cologne sits (with mineral content increasing somewhat the closer to the river you get because of seepage). So I don't think it'll make a big difference whether they get their water from the regional utility or from their own wells - it's all from the same aquifer.