Tuesday 20 July 2021

Heineken (Rotterdam) grists in 1942

Over at the grist, the big change is the arrival of sugar. Rather a lot of it, amounting to almost 30% of the total. It was used in a rather odd way, however. Rather than just being added to the wort during the boil, it seems to have been fermented separately and then blended with the wort post-fermentation. For each brew there are two entries in record, one for the standard wort and another for a sugar brew. Both had the same gravities.

Otherwise, the elements remain the same: pilsner malt as base, backed up by kleurmout, broeimout and caramelmout. There has been a change in the proportions, however, with the darker beers containing far more kleurmout than previously. Doubtless to maintain the required dark colour in a wort which is not only much weaker, but also contains a large amount of sugar. The proportions of broeimout and caramelmout have also been modified, with less of the former and more of the latter. Not sure what the motivation behind that change might have been.

Another modification is the addition of kleurmout to the pale beers. Obviously, again for colour-correction purposes.

Heineken (Rotterdam) grists in 1942
Date Beer Style pilsner malt Kleur-mout broei-mout Caramel-mout sugar
26th Jun Li Licht Lagerbier 70.00% 1.88%     28.13%
26th Jun Beiersche Münchener 49.69% 10.94% 5.63% 5.63% 28.13%
29th Jun Do Donker Lagerbier 49.69% 10.94% 5.63% 5.63% 28.13%
28th Jun P dun Pils 68.75% 3.13%     28.13%
1st Jul P Pils 69.37% 0.90%     29.73%
Source:
Heineken brewing record held at the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, document number 834 - 1760.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Fermenting the sugar separately would have required some form of yeast nutrient. Maybe they used yeast slurry from their main brews with a fair proportion of dead yeast "hulls" in the mix?