Charts
Brewing Water Profiles by Style
Classic Burton-on-Trent water is commonly cited around 300 to 350 ppm calcium and 700 to 820 ppm sulfate, the mineral profile most associated with big, dry, hop-forward English pale ales, while Pilsen water is cited at the opposite extreme, roughly 5 to 10 ppm calcium and under 15 ppm on nearly every ion, the very soft water associated with delicate pilsners.
These are historical reference profiles reported across homebrewing water chemistry literature, and figures vary somewhat between sources, so treat any single profile as a starting point for building a mash water plan rather than a specification to match exactly.
Why brewers still talk about city water profiles
Long before modern water chemistry software, entire brewing styles developed around whatever water happened to come out of the ground in a particular city. Burton-on-Trent has naturally gypsum-rich water, and that water is a major reason English pale ales and IPAs from that region developed their dry, sulfate-forward character. Dublin water carries enough natural alkalinity to support the dark, roasted grain bills of dry stout without the acidity turning harsh. Pilsen has extremely soft water, which suits the delicate, all-malt character of a pilsner because there is almost no mineral character to clash with it.
Home brewers cite these historical profiles today as a way to describe a target flavour direction in a shared vocabulary, not because a modern brewery in any of these places necessarily uses untreated well water anymore. Most breweries, including the original ones, adjust their water in some way. The value of these profiles for a home brewer is as a starting point and a mental model, a known combination of ions that historically produced a beer with a certain character, which can then be approximated with brewing salts.
Reported figures for these historical profiles vary somewhat between different published sources, because they were measured at different times, by different methods, and the water itself has likely changed over the decades since some of these numbers were first popularized. Treat every number below as an approximate, commonly cited figure rather than a certified lab result, and treat the whole profile as a direction to lean toward rather than a target to hit precisely.
Classic water profiles, ppm (commonly cited, approximate)
| City / profile | Calcium (Ca) | Magnesium (Mg) | Sodium (Na) | Chloride (Cl) | Sulfate (SO4) | Bicarbonate (HCO3) | Associated style |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burton-on-Trent | 300 to 350 | 20 to 30 | 25 to 55 | 35 to 60 | 700 to 820 | 270 to 320 | English pale ale, IPA |
| Dublin | 115 to 125 | 4 to 5 | 10 to 15 | 15 to 20 | 55 to 60 | 300 to 320 | Dry stout |
| London | 50 to 90 | 15 to 30 | 15 to 85 | 35 to 60 | 30 to 55 | 100 to 160 | Brown ale, mild |
| Munich | 75 to 80 | 15 to 20 | 1 to 10 | 1 to 2 | 5 to 10 | 150 to 165 | Dunkel, helles, malty lager |
| Pilsen | 5 to 10 | 1 to 3 | 1 to 5 | 3 to 6 | 3 to 6 | 10 to 15 | Pilsner |
| Dortmund | 200 to 230 | 35 to 45 | 55 to 70 | 55 to 65 | 110 to 125 | 200 to 225 | Export, helles |
| Vienna | 195 to 205 | 55 to 65 | 5 to 10 | 10 to 15 | 120 to 130 | 115 to 125 | Vienna lager, amber lager |
Reading the pattern instead of memorizing the numbers
The useful thing about this table is not any single number, it is the pattern across the row. Burton stands out for extremely high sulfate relative to chloride, which is the mineral signature behind a dry, crisp, hop-accentuating bitterness. Dublin and Munich both carry meaningful bicarbonate, useful for buffering the acidity of dark roasted grains, but Dublin pairs that with low sulfate and chloride while Munich pairs it with very low everything else, supporting a soft, malt-forward character rather than a bitter one. Pilsen is defined mostly by what is missing, almost no mineral content at all, letting a delicate all-malt beer speak for itself without competing flavours.
London and Dortmund both sit in a moderate middle ground but for different reasons. London water carries meaningful sodium alongside moderate chloride and sulfate, contributing to a rounder, fuller mouthfeel associated with English milds and browns. Dortmund is mineral-rich across nearly every ion at once, calcium, sulfate, chloride and bicarbonate all elevated together, which historically supported a beer with more body and minerality than a pilsner but less aggressive dryness than a Burton pale ale.
None of this means a home brewer needs to hit a Burton profile exactly to brew a good English IPA, or a Pilsen profile exactly to brew a good pilsner. Local tap water, filtered or treated as a base, adjusted with brewing salts toward the general shape of one of these profiles, gets most of the practical benefit. Overshooting sulfate far past historical Burton levels, for example, tends to produce a mineral, sometimes sulfurous harshness that the historical brewers themselves generally were not chasing either.
Quick lookup: style family to historical profile
| Style family | Closest historical profile | Key mineral driver |
|---|---|---|
| English pale ale, IPA | Burton-on-Trent | Very high sulfate relative to chloride |
| Irish dry stout | Dublin | Moderate bicarbonate, low sulfate and chloride |
| English mild, brown ale | London | Moderate sodium, more balanced sulfate and chloride |
| German dunkel, helles (malty) | Munich | High bicarbonate, very low everything else |
| Pilsner | Pilsen | Almost no mineral content at all |
| German export, mineral-forward helles | Dortmund | High across calcium, sulfate, chloride and bicarbonate together |
| Vienna lager, amber lager | Vienna | Elevated sulfate paired with moderate bicarbonate |
How brewers apply a historical profile in practice
A practical starting point is a water quality report for your own tap or well water, since that is the water actually going into the mash rather than the historical profile itself. Most municipal water utilities publish an annual water quality report that lists calcium, magnesium, sodium, chloride, sulfate, and alkalinity for the local supply, and comparing that report against a chosen historical profile shows exactly which ions need to move, and in which direction, to lean the water toward a given style.
Some brewers instead start from reverse osmosis or distilled water, which strips out nearly all mineral content before any salts are added. Building a profile up from close to zero avoids the uncertainty of an unknown starting tap water composition, and it means every ion in the final water is accounted for by a deliberate addition rather than partly by an unmeasured municipal supply. This approach trades a little more up-front effort, since more salts are needed overall, for more precise control over the final result.
It is worth separating two related but different water adjustments that often get discussed together. The flavour ions on this page, calcium, magnesium, sodium, chloride and sulfate, are adjusted with the brewing salts described in this site's brewing salts chart. Mash pH is a related but separate concern, driven mainly by the interaction between bicarbonate alkalinity and the acidity of the grain bill itself, and is typically fine-tuned with acid additions or brewing salts chosen specifically for their effect on alkalinity, rather than by the flavour-ion salts alone.
A starting point, not a specification
Matching a historical city profile is a useful mental shortcut for choosing a flavour direction, but it should not be treated as a requirement the way a recipe gravity target or a fermentation temperature range might be. Actual breweries in these cities today filter, treat, and adjust their water, and the version of Dublin or Munich water flowing from a tap in 2026 is not necessarily identical to the profile commonly quoted in homebrewing references. The historical numbers persist because they describe a useful flavour direction, not because they describe current reality.
A practical approach starts from a water report for your own tap or well water, since that is the water actually going into the mash, and adjusts from there toward the general character of whichever historical profile matches the style being brewed. Water chemistry software and calculators exist specifically to bridge the gap between a starting water report and a target profile using brewing salts, and that bridging step matters more for the final beer than which historical city name gets attached to the target.
Everything else worth considering
Craft A Brew Gypsum (calcium sulfate, 4 oz)
Calcium sulfate, which raises calcium and sulfate and is the salt used to sharpen hop bitterness.
LD Carlson Gypsum (1 lb)
One pound of brewing gypsum, which at typical dose rates lasts years.
Craft A Brew Calcium Chloride (4 oz)
Calcium chloride, which raises calcium and chloride and is the salt associated with a rounder, fuller palate.
Home Brew Ohio Calcium Chloride (1 lb)
Bulk calcium chloride for brewers adjusting every batch.
TAPCRAFT Brewing Salts Set
A set of the common brewing salts for building regional water profiles from a single purchase.
TAPCRAFT Campden Tablets (potassium metabisulfite, 50 count)
Removes chlorine and chloramine from tap water, which otherwise produce a medicinal off flavour.
YINMIK Digital pH Meter with ATC
Pocket pH meter with automatic temperature compensation for checking mash pH. It must be calibrated against buffer solutions to mean anything.
Digital Pocket Scale 200 g x 0.01 g
Hundredth of a gram resolution, which is the precision hop additions and water salts actually need.
Related on BrewGearCalc
- Water chemistry calculator
- Strike water calculator
- Mash water calculator
- Reference charts
- Brewing guides
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need to match a historical water profile exactly to brew an authentic style?
- No. These profiles are commonly cited starting points and flavour directions, not requirements, and even the breweries historically associated with them typically treat or adjust their water today. What matters more is understanding the pattern, such as Burton being sulfate-forward and Pilsen being nearly mineral-free, and adjusting your own water in that general direction rather than chasing an exact ppm match on every ion.
- Why do different sources list slightly different numbers for the same city profile?
- These figures were measured at different times using different methods, and in some cases the water itself has changed since the numbers were first popularized in brewing literature. Historical water reports were also not always collected with modern analytical consistency. Treat any published version, including the ranges on this page, as an approximate reference rather than a certified current measurement of that city's actual tap water.
- Should I start from my tap water or from a target historical profile?
- Start from your own tap or well water, since that is the water that will actually go into the mash, then adjust toward the general character of whichever historical profile suits the style. Building salt additions on top of an unknown base water risks combining minerals already present in your source with additional minerals from salts, overshooting the target far more easily than starting from a known baseline.
- Why does Burton water suit pale ales but Pilsen water suits pilsners?
- Burton water carries very high sulfate relative to other ions, and sulfate accentuates a dry, crisp bitterness that complements a hop-forward pale ale or IPA. Pilsen water has almost no mineral content at all, which lets the delicate, all-malt, moderately hopped character of a pilsner come through without competing mineral flavours. Each profile historically reinforced the style that developed alongside it rather than being chosen independently of it.
- Is high bicarbonate water always bad for pale, hoppy beers?
- High bicarbonate water tends to fight the natural acidity that pale, low roast grain bills need for a clean mash pH, which is why dark, roasted beers like stouts historically paired better with higher bicarbonate water than pale beers did. It is not that bicarbonate is universally bad, it simply needs to be matched to the grain bill's own acidity, which is why Dublin's bicarbonate suited stout while Burton's low bicarbonate suited pale ale.
- Can I use these profiles for lager styles even though most originated with ales?
- Yes, several of the profiles on this page, Munich, Pilsen, Dortmund and Vienna, are specifically associated with lager styles and describe the mineral character behind malt-forward dunkels, delicate pilsners, mineral-rich export lagers and amber Vienna lagers respectively. The same general approach applies: treat the historical figures as a flavour direction for that lager style rather than a target to match exactly.
Researched from published brewing formulas, manufacturer specifications and verified owner reviews. This is general guidance, not professional advice.