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15-04-2021, 07:28
Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2021/04/ny-carlsberg-beers-in-1928-1929.html)
I've been too diligent in collecting brewing records. That's how I excuse myself for the mountain of unprocessed ones. Including a hillock of Carlsberg logs. Our perhaps I'm just a lazy git? I'll let you decide.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gkPIwYESEeU/YHbyLEurHHI/AAAAAAAAi8g/zWctKn1Z0JYjEnV9CmPqsu5TR9qLbv0HACLcBGAsYHQ/w325-h400/Carlsberg_Baiersk_Lagerol.jpg (https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gkPIwYESEeU/YHbyLEurHHI/AAAAAAAAi8g/zWctKn1Z0JYjEnV9CmPqsu5TR9qLbv0HACLcBGAsYHQ/s314/Carlsberg_Baiersk_Lagerol.jpg)
Ever since I built up a backlog, I give priority to transcribing records which are relevant to a current project. That ruled out anything that wasn't in the time slot 1938 to 1948. After a lifetime and a half of toil, I finally finished off William Younger. I suspect most of it a waste of time. Dead handy for my birthday recipe thing, though. Lots and lots of different dates.
Wandering a bit off the path there. It was years back (May 2015, according to the photos) when I visited the Carlsberg archives. I photographed 20 brewing books from Ny Carlsberg, spanning 1867 to 1934. Quite a lot of stuff. Which would take years to fully process.
There's a good reason I'm looking at them now. I'm writing a talk on interwar European Lager. Carlsberg is a great example. Getting to use my research here as well makes it a win-win. For me, at any rate. Probably depends on how number-obsessed you are.
One word of warning: the FGs are a guess. I've a couple of analyses of Carlsberg's beers from around this time and they're around 75% apparent, so that's what I've gone with here. It could have been lower for the two dark beers and the porter.
As far as I can make out, Carlsberg brewed six different beers: three Pilsners, a Lagerbier, an Export and a Porter. Not a massive range. If these were German beers, I'd call the middle two Dunkles Lagerbier and Dunkles Export.
The standard Pilsner, which was by far the most-brewed of Carlsberg's range, is weaker than you would expect: under 11º Plato. Checking back through older logs, I saw that it was 12.9º in 1895, 12.6º in 1901, but only 10.9º in 1910. It wasn't WW I, as I suspected, that pushed the gravity down.
Export Pilsner is simply the same strength as the 1895 standard Pilsner. Looks like Carlsberg lowered the strength of the beer domestically and kept on brewing the old version for export.
Ny Pilsner (New Pilsner) looks like it's fitting into some sort of price class:
"The beers with less than 2.25 per cent alcohol show an even greater increase. The new Pilsener for instance increasing from Kr. 7.5 to 24.25 ore per bottle (about 0.75d. to 2.5d.) and from Kr. 16 to Kr. 60 per hectolitre in cask (or 26s. 3d. to 98s. 6d. per barrel)."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 27, Issue 1, January 1921, pages 26 - 27.This confirms that Ny Pilsner was a tax category:
Average Original Gravities of Danish Beers 1914 - 1920
Year ending September 30th
1915
1916
1917
1916
1919
1920
Lager beer
1052
1051
1048
1045
Pilsener beer
1044
1044
1041.5
1032
1038
1038
Stout, tax class I
1076
1076
1072
Stout, tax class II
1068
1068
1065
1058
1055
1056
Munich beer
1056
1056
1055
Export beer
1052
1050
1049.5
New Pilsener, tax class II
1032
1032
1032
1030
1031
1031
Source: Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 27, Issue 1, January 1921, page 27.
You may have noticed the eccentric colour scale used by Carlsberg. The higher the number, the paler the colour. How mad is that?
Lagerol and Export are both dark, but how dark? I'd guess 12-15 SRM. When we get to the recipe next time, I'll explain exactly why I'm guessing that.
By far the most heavily hopped of the beers, in terms of hops per 100 kg of malt, is Ny Pilsner. Probably to cover up how watery it was. Amongst the other beers, Export Pilsner is a little heavier on the hops. As the strongest beer by quite a way, it's no surprise that Porter has by far the most hops per hectolitre.
In general, the darker beers were boiled longer, the exception being Export Pilsner.
Ny Carlsberg beers in 1928-1929
Year
Beer
Style
OG Plato
FG Plato
ABV
App. Attenua-tion
kg hops/ 100 kg
hops kg/hl
boil time (hours)
colour
1929
Ny Pilsner
Pilsner
6.5
1.6
2.56
75.87%
2.63
0.19
1.75
19
1928
Pilsner
Pilsner
10.6
2.6
4.27
76.24%
1.26
0.18
1.75
19
1928
Lagerol I
Lager
10.6
2.6
4.27
76.24%
1.25
0.18
2
5.5
1929
Gammel Carlsberg Exp
Export
12.8
3.2
5.18
75.94%
1.28
0.21
2
5
1928
Exp. Pilsner
Pilsner
12.9
3.2
5.24
76.13%
1.58
0.28
2.25
20
1928
Porter
Porter
18.9
4.7
7.89
76.48%
1.41
0.41
2.5
Source:
Carlsberg brewing record held at the brewery, document number Serie 000000299 000056839.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2021/04/ny-carlsberg-beers-in-1928-1929.html)
I've been too diligent in collecting brewing records. That's how I excuse myself for the mountain of unprocessed ones. Including a hillock of Carlsberg logs. Our perhaps I'm just a lazy git? I'll let you decide.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gkPIwYESEeU/YHbyLEurHHI/AAAAAAAAi8g/zWctKn1Z0JYjEnV9CmPqsu5TR9qLbv0HACLcBGAsYHQ/w325-h400/Carlsberg_Baiersk_Lagerol.jpg (https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gkPIwYESEeU/YHbyLEurHHI/AAAAAAAAi8g/zWctKn1Z0JYjEnV9CmPqsu5TR9qLbv0HACLcBGAsYHQ/s314/Carlsberg_Baiersk_Lagerol.jpg)
Ever since I built up a backlog, I give priority to transcribing records which are relevant to a current project. That ruled out anything that wasn't in the time slot 1938 to 1948. After a lifetime and a half of toil, I finally finished off William Younger. I suspect most of it a waste of time. Dead handy for my birthday recipe thing, though. Lots and lots of different dates.
Wandering a bit off the path there. It was years back (May 2015, according to the photos) when I visited the Carlsberg archives. I photographed 20 brewing books from Ny Carlsberg, spanning 1867 to 1934. Quite a lot of stuff. Which would take years to fully process.
There's a good reason I'm looking at them now. I'm writing a talk on interwar European Lager. Carlsberg is a great example. Getting to use my research here as well makes it a win-win. For me, at any rate. Probably depends on how number-obsessed you are.
One word of warning: the FGs are a guess. I've a couple of analyses of Carlsberg's beers from around this time and they're around 75% apparent, so that's what I've gone with here. It could have been lower for the two dark beers and the porter.
As far as I can make out, Carlsberg brewed six different beers: three Pilsners, a Lagerbier, an Export and a Porter. Not a massive range. If these were German beers, I'd call the middle two Dunkles Lagerbier and Dunkles Export.
The standard Pilsner, which was by far the most-brewed of Carlsberg's range, is weaker than you would expect: under 11º Plato. Checking back through older logs, I saw that it was 12.9º in 1895, 12.6º in 1901, but only 10.9º in 1910. It wasn't WW I, as I suspected, that pushed the gravity down.
Export Pilsner is simply the same strength as the 1895 standard Pilsner. Looks like Carlsberg lowered the strength of the beer domestically and kept on brewing the old version for export.
Ny Pilsner (New Pilsner) looks like it's fitting into some sort of price class:
"The beers with less than 2.25 per cent alcohol show an even greater increase. The new Pilsener for instance increasing from Kr. 7.5 to 24.25 ore per bottle (about 0.75d. to 2.5d.) and from Kr. 16 to Kr. 60 per hectolitre in cask (or 26s. 3d. to 98s. 6d. per barrel)."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 27, Issue 1, January 1921, pages 26 - 27.This confirms that Ny Pilsner was a tax category:
Average Original Gravities of Danish Beers 1914 - 1920
Year ending September 30th
1915
1916
1917
1916
1919
1920
Lager beer
1052
1051
1048
1045
Pilsener beer
1044
1044
1041.5
1032
1038
1038
Stout, tax class I
1076
1076
1072
Stout, tax class II
1068
1068
1065
1058
1055
1056
Munich beer
1056
1056
1055
Export beer
1052
1050
1049.5
New Pilsener, tax class II
1032
1032
1032
1030
1031
1031
Source: Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 27, Issue 1, January 1921, page 27.
You may have noticed the eccentric colour scale used by Carlsberg. The higher the number, the paler the colour. How mad is that?
Lagerol and Export are both dark, but how dark? I'd guess 12-15 SRM. When we get to the recipe next time, I'll explain exactly why I'm guessing that.
By far the most heavily hopped of the beers, in terms of hops per 100 kg of malt, is Ny Pilsner. Probably to cover up how watery it was. Amongst the other beers, Export Pilsner is a little heavier on the hops. As the strongest beer by quite a way, it's no surprise that Porter has by far the most hops per hectolitre.
In general, the darker beers were boiled longer, the exception being Export Pilsner.
Ny Carlsberg beers in 1928-1929
Year
Beer
Style
OG Plato
FG Plato
ABV
App. Attenua-tion
kg hops/ 100 kg
hops kg/hl
boil time (hours)
colour
1929
Ny Pilsner
Pilsner
6.5
1.6
2.56
75.87%
2.63
0.19
1.75
19
1928
Pilsner
Pilsner
10.6
2.6
4.27
76.24%
1.26
0.18
1.75
19
1928
Lagerol I
Lager
10.6
2.6
4.27
76.24%
1.25
0.18
2
5.5
1929
Gammel Carlsberg Exp
Export
12.8
3.2
5.18
75.94%
1.28
0.21
2
5
1928
Exp. Pilsner
Pilsner
12.9
3.2
5.24
76.13%
1.58
0.28
2.25
20
1928
Porter
Porter
18.9
4.7
7.89
76.48%
1.41
0.41
2.5
Source:
Carlsberg brewing record held at the brewery, document number Serie 000000299 000056839.
More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2021/04/ny-carlsberg-beers-in-1928-1929.html)