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I'm continuing my series of random Lager analyses from the years following WWW II. Why, you may ask. The simple answer to that is: because I can. This is my blog and I can do what the hell I like.

That's the glory of a blog. There's no editor looking over your shoulder. You're 100% on your own. Which is the way I like it. I hate being told what to do.

Getting back to the topic of this post, these are beers which I'm pretty sure were on sale in the UK. The ones with a price listed, almost certainly so. Though all are some sort of Pale Laager, there's a fair amount of variation in strength.

The two examples at just over 1030º were definitely specifically brewed for the UK market. No-one in Germany drank Lager that weak. The ones at 1040-1042º couldn't have been for the German market, either. There was a gap in the tax gravity bands between 9º and 11º Plato (approximately 1036º-1044º. so those must be some sort of beer for export.

It's interesting to see so many examples of Holsten. A little later - in the 1970s and 1980s - Holsten was a big brand in the UK. I wonder if that was because they'd got into the UK market early?

Lager brewed in Germany 1952 - 1963
Year Brewer Beer Price OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation colour
1957 Dortmunder Union Pilsener 47 1042.8 1007.4 4.61 82.71% 8
1963 Dortmunder Union Pilsner 44 1042 1006.7 4.41 84.05% 9
1952 Dressler Lager 1051.8 1009.4 5.53 81.85% 6.5
1963 Elbschloss Ratsherrn Lager 48 1030.5 1006.3 3.03 79.34% 13
1961 Hackerbräu Hackerbräu Light 66 1051.7 1014.5 4.65 71.95% 8
1957 Holsten Holsten Pilsner 1044.7 1007.4 4.86 83.45% 8
1957 Holsten Holsten Pilsner 42 1044.7 1008.2 4.75 81.66% 8
1961 Holsten Holsten Lager 40 1044.1 1008.1 4.50 81.63% 7
1961 Holsten Pilsner Lager 40 1045.5 1000.8 5.59 98.24% 7
1963 Holsten Pilsner 44 1046.1 1006.7 4.92 85.47% 6
1957 Löwenbräu Pale Bock 51 1061.9 1014.3 6.20 76.90% 6
1961 Patzenhofer Patz Lager 42 1041 1007.5 4.36 81.71% 7.5
1959 St. Paul B.B. Lager 1030.7 1010.3 2.64 66.45% 7
1950 Tucher Tucher Pils Lager 1055.1 1014.4 5.29 73.87% 15
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

All of the beers were hideously expensive. To put things into perspective, you could get a pint of Truman's bottled Light Ale for 20d. That's a beer, at 1031.8º slightly stronger than Ratsherrn Lager, for less than half the price. I'm not sure I understand why anyone would voluntarily pay more than double the price for their beer.






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