The decline of top fermentation in Berlin

I seem to have been getting sidetracked onto German brewing a lot recently. Today's set of numbers come from a book on brewing in Berlin I was sent yesterday.

I've been OCRing the test and was drawn, as you are, to some of the numbers. You can never have too many numbers. This set shows the inexorable rise of bottom fermentation in Berlin. The figures show similarities with those for North Germany as a whole. The quantity of top-fermenting beer increased, but at nothing like the rate of top-fermenting beer.

Between 1860 and 1904 the amount of top-fermenting beer produced in Berlin quadrupled. But that of bottom-fermenting beer 24-fold. The proportion of each just about exactly flipped from 29% bottom to 71% top in 1860, to 70% bottom 30% top in 1904.

Remember that Berlin had a strong local style in Berliner Weisse, plus other top-fermenting styles like Braunbier and Porter. In areas with less strong older brewing tradittions, top-fermentation declined even more and more rapidly.

The huge increase in beer production was caused by a rapid rise in Berlin's population and rising living standards as a result of industrialisation

I'm surprised how much bottom-fermenting beer was brewed in Berlin in 1860. That's about the start of when Lager brewing spread to North Germany. It only really took off after 1870 with the advent of artificial refrigeration. You can see in the table that bottom-fermentation really took off in Berlin from 1875 onwards.

Beer production in Berlin 1860 - 1904 (hl)
Year	bottom fermenting	top fermenting	total	% bottom	% top
1860	150,421	370,284	520,705	28.89%	71.11%
1865	324,108	544,723	868,831	37.30%	62.70%
1870	536,840	512,878	1,049,718	51.14%	48.86%
1875	1,112,283	874,317	1,986,600	55.99%	44.01%
1880	1,091,357	708,267	1,799,624	60.64%	39.36%
1885	1,492,487	805,927	2,308,414	64.65%	34.91%
1890	1,939,023	1,060,001	2,999,024	64.66%	35.34%
1895	2,379,368	1,234,153	3,613,521	65.85%	34.15%
1901/02	3,717,592	1,704,595	5,422,187	68.56%	31.44%
1902/03	3,530,581	1,546,494	5,077,075	69.54%	30.46%
1903/04	3,380,445	1,373,715	4,754,160	71.10%	28.90%
1904/05	3,590,623	1,503,659	5,094,282	70.48%	29.52%
Source:
Beiträge zur Geschichte des Berliner Brauwesens und seiner Organisation by Karl Bullemer, Berlin, 1959, pages 17 and 64.