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19-05-2014, 08:08
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I know. Obsessing about rice in German beer is weird. I just can't help myself.

There are other things I should be up to. Like researching Dutch Lager styles. I'm supposed to be giving a talk on that soon. Or German sour beers. Another topic I'll soon be lecturing about. So far I've only piled up Dutch brewery histories on the floor behind me. I spent a big chunk of yesterday hunting for a Heineken history, only to find it within reach of where I sit. That's the main drawback of my way of sorting my books. The just-remembering-where-it-is method.

But I digress. I'm supposed to be telling you aboout rice in German beer, amongst other things. Spinning a tale around a table of dull statistics from a hundred year old chemistry magazine. (Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie, if you're interested.)

I guess first I'd best explain what the statistics are for: the Brausteuergebied. What was that? The part of the German Empire with a unified beer tax regime. It literally means Beer Tax Area. It's easier to explain what it wasn't, rather than what it was. Everywhere except Bavaria, Baben, Württemberg and Alsace-Lorraine. Most of the country, really, but missing the major brewing areas in the South.

Right, what to tell you first? One of the most obvious is the rise of Lager. While the output of top-fermenting beer was flat, the production of bottom-fermenting beer more than tripled. The result was that the chare of top-fermenting beer more than halved from 36% to 16%. It was a trend that continued in the 20th century.



Use of taxable raw materials and beer production in the Brausteuergebied


tax year 1 April - 31st March
use of taxable brewing materials









grain
malt substitutes
quantity of beer brewed

in 1 hl of beer



total
ground barley malt
total
rice
all types of sugar
all types of syrup
top fermenting
bottom fermenting
top fermenting
bottom fermenting
grain and rice
malt substitutes



hk
hk
hk
hk
hk
hk
hl
hl
%
%
k
k


1882
4,469,280
4,328,286
22,611
3,755
13,591
1598
7,901,207
14,211,973
36
64
20.23
0.09


1887
5,503,903
5,354,779
43,312
9,684
25,434
2358
8,503,919
18,971,927
31
69
20.07
0.12


1892
6,330,765
6,168,393
87,164
50,767
28,649
2129
7,664,889
25,498,919
23
77
19.24
0.11


1883
6,553,787
6,356,370
91,535
51,074
27,468
1641
7,522,307
26,854,999
22
78
19.15
0.12


1894
6,435,636
6,246,062
109,090
67,805
27,922
1651
7,111,305
26,856,048
21
79
19.15
0.12


1896
7,029,267
6,824,308
119,382
75,782
28,551
1757
7,884,114
29,841,501
21
79
18.83
0.12


1896
7,118,439
6,914,923
121,055
75,957
29,576
1558
7,544,730
30,803,611
20
80
18.76
0.12


1897
7,590,880
7,380,322
142,067
98,669
31,732
1474
7,777,049
33,654,123
19
81
18.55
0.12


1898
7,644,366
7,444,983
157,596
102,254
36,720
1606
7,566,770
34,698,630
18
82
18.33
0.13


1899
7,810,734
7,619,275
157,663
98,090
42,123
1515
7,280,851
35,925,271
17
83
18.30
0.14


1900
8,007,273
7,811,851
149,809
89,573
42,112
2009
7,428,980
37,300,826
17
83
18.10
0.13


1901
7,964,681
7,782,839
149,620
87,371
42,571
3013
7,322,999
37,712,996
16
84
17.88
0.14


Note:


The taxed export beers of Bremen are not included


Source:


Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie, 1903 page 446.




http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7dH2L-a2M9Y/U1ziK1BXtvI/AAAAAAAATiE/ZBSzdE6XM_8/s1600/Taxable_Raw_Materials_and_Beer_Production_Brausteu rgebied_1882_1901.jpg (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7dH2L-a2M9Y/U1ziK1BXtvI/AAAAAAAATiE/ZBSzdE6XM_8/s1600/Taxable_Raw_Materials_and_Beer_Production_Brausteu rgebied_1882_1901.jpg)
On a side note, you can see how barley was pretty much the only grain used. Which is interesting, as many of the old North German top-fermenting styles contained wheat. They were clearly being brewed in tiny quantities.

Rice was by quite a long way the most popular adjunct, though in comparison with barley malt, not a great deal was used. I'm surprised at how little sugar was used. It's such handy stuff. It would be great to have figures for how much sugar is used in German brewing today. I can't remember ever seeing statistics for that. The Deutsche Brauerbund probably isn't keen on advertising the fact German brewers use sugar. Even though they always have. (The Reinheitsgebot allows sugar in top-fermenting beers.)

Just for fun, I've calculated the average OG of the beers. I've based it on 80 brewers pound per quarter of malt. A hectokilo, the unit used in the table, is just about exactly two hundredweight, or two-thirds of a quarter. You can see that it looks much like modern German beer, strength-wise:



year
average OG


1882
1049.1


1887
1048.7


1892
1046.4


1883
1047.4


1894
1046.4


1896
1045.3


1896
1045.1


1897
1044.5


1898
1044.0


1899
1044.0


1900
1043.5


1901
1043.0



Was gravity really falling or were they just getting more from the malt? I'd suspect the latter, but could be wrong.

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