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View Full Version : Shut up about Barclay Perkins - Dutch Lager Styles 1870 - 1960 (part five)



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17-07-2015, 09:10
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Lager styles of the 1890’s
Cartel forming amongst brewers is nothing new. They were at it back in the 1890’s. Luckily for me, because the draught agreement tells us a lot about what was being brewed in the 1890’s.



1893 price-fixing agreement


beer type
max. º Balling
minimum price per litre


Hollandsch Bier

7 cents


Nieuw Hollandsch Bier

7 cents


Lager Bier
11º
9 cents


Extra Lager Bier
11º
9 cents


Pilsener
15º
9 cents


Münchener
15º
9 cents


Dortmunder
15º
14 cents


Brown Stout
16º
16 cents


Extra Stout
19º
20 cents


Source:


"Korte Geschiedenis der Heineken's Bierbouwerij Maatschappij N.V. 1873 - 1948" (p.421, 422)




http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hrxoG1kV9vU/VaTvFocyavI/AAAAAAAAX0E/48JWbkZlBnM/s400/Heineken_Munchener_Bier.jpg (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hrxoG1kV9vU/VaTvFocyavI/AAAAAAAAX0E/48JWbkZlBnM/s1600/Heineken_Munchener_Bier.jpg)
It’s worth noting that these are maximum gravities. In practice, Pilsener would have been well below 15º Plato. Dortmunder, on the other hand, with its minimum price of 14 cents, was probably closer to that maximum. Lager Bier and Extra Lager Bier were presumably lower-strength pale or dark Lagers.



1900 - 1914
Despite the success of these new concerns Dutch beer production was stagnant at around 1.5 million hectolitres annually in the years leading up to WW I .

A range of Lager styles were produced, in a variety of strengths and colours. At this point Pils still did not have the dominant position it later acquired. That’s demonstrated by a quick look at Heineken’s brewing records. I won’t claim this is a definitive breakdown of the relative amounts of if each type of beer brewed by Heineken. It’s just what’s on four random pages that I photographed. But it does give some idea of the proportions.

On every single page around half of the brews were of Gerste. Second most popular, by a long way, was Lager , a lower-gravity Pale Lager that was the equivalent of Winterbier or Schenkbier.



Heineken Rotterdam production by type in 1911


type
no. of brews
size of brew (HL)
total amount
% of total


Lager
226
270
61,020
36.13%


Gerste
356
220
78,320
46.37%


Beiersch
28
200
5,600
3.32%


Pils
107
200
21,400
12.67%


Bok
17
150
2,550
1.51%


total
734

168,890



Source:


Heineken brewing record held at the Amsterdam Stadsarchief, document number 834-1752.



It’s clear that Pils was still very much a minority drink and that Beiersch was already a marginal product.

The share of Bok was undoubtedly lower as I’ve based these figures on the number of brews of each type at a certain point in the brewing year, in this case June. It ran up until the end of September so while all the brews of Bok appear in the figures, only about 75% of those for the other styles do.

This is an overview of the beers Heineken Rotterdam brewed in 1911:



Heineken Rotterdam beers in 1911


Bier
OG Balling
FG Balling
app.degree attenuation
% ABV
Colour
hops (gm/hl)


Pils
13.2
4.15
68.56%
4.8
6
235.3


Lager
9.8
3.3
66.33%
3.4
9
168.1


Gerste
12
5
58.33%
3.7
13.5
180.2


Beiersch
13.1
5.3
59.54%
4.2
13
175.9


Bok
16.7
7.5
55.09%
5
14
196.1


Source:


Heineken brewing records held at the Amsterdam Stadsarchief



The poor degree of attenuation is typical of early Lagers. Even the Pils is less than 70% attenuated. You’ll see how this changed over the course of the 20th century.

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