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[Big Nake]

I was having an email conversation with another brewer who asked me about water and also yeast for a dortmunder. With all of the gold lagers I have made, I'm not sure that I have ever set out to make a dortmunder on purpose. I gave him some advice on the water and I also did a quick search showing that Wyeast 2042 Danish was mentioned as a good dort yeast as was WLP885 Zurich. I probably used 2042 years ago but don't remember its character. But it occurs to me that S-189 is "swiss" so could it be a dry version of 885? I would think the S-189 would actually make a good dortmunder and I mentioned this to the other brewer.

All of that said, if I make helles, pilsners and "American Lagers", what would I do differently if I were making a dortmunder? I had originally heard that you might use water that was a little more minerally (more sulfate) but I have also heard that it's not really the case anymore. I was just in Frankfurt last month where I drank a number of gold beers and if I combine that experience with 2013 when I was in Munich (and Vienna and Prague), I find that it's hard to tell the difference between a lot of the central European gold lagers... the helles and the pils I sampled were all similar. The Czech versions were different but the German lagers all seemed to be very similar. If someone were to make a dort, what would be the standout ingredient or character compared to a pils or helles?