Glückauf Brauerei, Gersdorf

More DDR brewery fun. I've neglected it a little recently.

A shame, because Dolores got me a dead handy book, "Die Biere des Ostens", for my birthday. It's all about the breweries of the former DDR. A bit old, but still handy. For example, it tells me that Glückauf brewed 60,000 hl a year in 2004 when the book was published.

I'd been wanting to write something about the Glückauf brewery, just beacuse I like their labels so much. Well, some of them. One set is pretty dull.

Gersdorf is a small town about 15 km west of Karl-Marx-Stadt, sorry, Chemnitz, in the state of Saxony. The brewery was founded in 1880, nationalised in 1946 and sold to management in 1991. Between 1995 and 1998 a completely new brewery was built and the old one turned into a museum. As far as I can tell, it's still privately owned.

here are some lovely old seals:

Notice the unusual beer in there? Pilsner Schankbier. I've never come across another. Nor seen a mention of one anywhere. Judging by the label, it must be pretty early. It doesn't even state the price.



The next set aren't quite so pretty, but do give an idea of the range they brewed.

All three of those are still brewed. Or at least there's still a Pils, Helles and Dunkles Bock in their range. Tale a look:

Glückauf beers in 2015
Beer	Style	OG Plato	FG Plato	ABV	App. Atten-uation
Pilsener	Pils	11.50	2.20	4.90	81.57%
Premium Pils	Pils	11.60	2.30	4.90	80.87%
Edel	Helles	11.70	2.41	4.90	80.19%
Kräusenbier	Kellerbier	11.50	2.01	5.00	83.19%
Bock	Bock, Dunkel	16.00	4.34	6.30	74.11%
Schwarzes	Schwarzbier	11.80	2.51	4.90	79.52%
Deputat	Helles			4.90
Edelpils	Pils			4.90
GB Prime	Pils	11.50	2.20	4.90	81.57%
Gersdorfer Ale	Pale Ale			6.80
Heller Bock	Bock, Hell			6.30
Cheer	Kirschbier	11.60		3.60
Source:
Brewery website http://www.glueckaufbiere.de

Schwarzbier is becoming a standard beer in parts of the East, particularly Saxony. I don't know how many used to be brewed, other than Köstritzer. I'm not sure Kellerbier existed at all in the DDR time, though some of the bottled beers were pretty roughly filtered.

I'm not sure why they four Pils, all with virtually identical specs. I suspect there are only really two variants, one at 11.5º Plato and another at 11.6º Plato.

I was quite shocked to see a relatively small brewery brewing something called an Ale. Not quite sure what it is or if it's top-fermented, but based on the ABV, it looks like they're aiming for Pale Ale to me.

And finally there's a cherry abomination. I won't say anything more about that.

Lots more of this to come when I can get my arse in gear.