Brewing city
Dortmund
Industrial Ruhr brewing city that gave its name to Dortmunder Export, a pale lager built for a working population.
In Germany.
Why it matters to beer
Dortmund water is high in both sulphate and chloride, producing a lager firmer and more mineral than a Munich Helles but softer and less bitter than a northern Pils. The city was for a time the largest beer-producing city in Europe.
Styles from here
Beers brewed here
Breweries
The water
Hard water high in both sulphate and chloride, producing a pale lager firmer than a Helles but softer than a northern Pils.
Water is shown here as a property of the place rather than as the reason its beer turned out the way it did. The correlation between a city’s water and its style is real; the causal story is more contingent than it is usually told, and BeerHQ treats it as contested. See Dortmund water.
Elsewhere in the country
Bavaria · Munich · Franconia · Cologne · Düsseldorf · Berlin · Hallertau
Last reviewed 2026-08-15.