Here is a picture of the water report from a spring in Weisbaden Germany. If you think all water in Germany is soft, well think again. This spring is the Baeckerbrunnen, or baker’s spring. In the analysis Sodium is listed as Natrium, which is where the “Na” comes from. Some will get a kick out of this!
Sorry for the glare. The water might be good for a Gose, as there is a lot of salt in this water, it does taste salty. The Calcium, Mg, and bicarbonate levels are also very high, but the sulfate is not as high as I would of thought from the smell of the spring.
People drink it but there is this warning on an adjacent sign.
The bottom says “Recommended Daily Dose - Do not drink more than 1 liter per day” must be due to the Strontium level I would think.
The first report had other minerals such as Iron, Nickel, and other metals. The glare was to high for those to show up. Here is picture of the spring. Notice the minerals on the tap and the basin. The spring flows 65 liters per minute at 490C. It is a hot spring, and there are >20 Wiesbaden, which translates to Meadow Springs.
The spring is a local landmark in Weisbaden, along with some of the others. Some springs feed mineral baths that you can soak in, as that is said to be good for aching joints. Here is a picture of the spring’s building and some random Frau standing in front.
Nope, not even a Gose is crafted with that high a sodium level. In talking with some successful pro Gose brewers, they take the sodium level as high as 300 ppm. But that is through a post-fermentation dosing of salt. You probably would not want to take sodium above a couple hundred ppm for a good ferment. The osmotic stress would adversely affect the yeast unless most of the other ions are low.
Martin - I posted this as a little fun. The water smells bad and tastes salty. I would not brew with it.
This is to show that there is some not so good water in Germany. Many think that it is like Plzen, and very soft. There are always those that think spring water is good for brewing. Not this spring!
We were in Germany for 10 days, got back yesterday. When we lived in Wiesbaden, the water was not so good. Talking with the German friends that we stayed with for 3 days, they said that the water in the town comes from 3 sources. Where they live now the water is very good, as it comes out of the Taunus mountains morth of the city. They used to live near where we did, and the water was from the Rhein river, and was bad tasting. They commented on how much better the coffee and tea is at their new place.
There is another spring in the area, same water report. We were going to take a picture, and a not so old woman came up in a wheel chair to fill her bottle. She had no hair, and a scarf on her head. We left without taking a picture while she fillled a liter container with her “cure water”. Some believe in the powers of this water. Me, not so much. If I were sick, maybe more so.
