Thursday 29 July 2021

Something other than Heineken

Only kidding. Of course it's more Heineken stuff. Lots of crumbs of knowledge for me to peck away at.

Lagering times is today's topic. Did I mention before that there wasn't much about them in the records? That's not totally true. There are a few details and dates. Annoyingly, no temperatures are given. My guess us that the lagering tanks would have been filled with the wort at the temperature where fermentation ended. That is 5º-6º C. Then slowly cooled to around freezing.

The pattern is fill the tank, leave it open for a few days, seal it up and finally let the pressure increase. That pressure coming from the continued fermentation while lagering. Fermentation must have occurred as the eventual FG is a good bit lower than at the end of primary fermentation. All, with the exception of Export Pils, lost more than 2º Plato during secondary fermentation.

Is lagering really a secondary fermentation? I suspect not, technically. As it's really a continuation of primary. Who gives a toss about that, really? I've certainly more worthwhile quibbles to waste my time on.

Yet another table showing that fall in gravity I mentioned a short while ago.

Heineken 1935 secondary fermentation
Beer Racking gravity Plato FG Plato Fall Plato
Münchener 6.4 4.0 2.4
Pils 6 3.4 2.6
Export Pils 4.5 2.8 1.7
Bok 8.2 5.6 2.6
Source:
Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792.

The lagering times are pretty reasonable. Around 10 weeks for the Piseners and for Münchener more than 17 weeks. Just a shame that there are no examples of the two Lagerbiers. I'd love to know how long they were lagereed.

That's enough fun for today. I've some more numbers that need fiddling with. Though,  as it's not raining, I may nip out for a quick walk and read of Private Eye. That night happen to take me past Ton Overmars. Where I may as well check if they've refilled the shelf with Abt.

Pilsener 11th Jul 1935 Lagering
Step Date
Filled 20th July
Sealed 24th July
Pressurised 29th July
Tapped 30th Sept
Tasted 26th Oct
Total days 72
Source:
Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 20.


Export Pils 18th Jul 1935 Lagering
Step Date
Filled 26th July
Sealed 28th July
Pressurised 5th Aug
Tapped 1st Oct
Tasted 26th Oct
Total days 67
Source:
Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 20.


Münchener 2nd Jul 1935 Lagering
Step Date
Filled 10th July
Sealed 11th July
Pressurised 15th July
Tapped 9th Dec
Tasted 9th Dec
total days 122
Source:
Heineken Brouwjournalen van de proefziederij, 1935 - 1957 held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1785-1792, page 11.


6 comments:

Thom Farrell said...

Is there evidence that the beers were pasteurised at this stage?

Ron Pattinson said...

Thom,

good question. In some of the pilot brew it specifically mentions that at least some of the beer was pasteurised. That they note was some was pasteurised, it implies that some wasn't.

Anonymous said...

Was Dutch beer bsck then so heavily oriented toward Germany, or was that just Heineken?

If it was so slanted toward German styles, I'd be interested in hearing why Belgian or English beers struggled to make inroads with Dutch drinkers.

Michael Foster said...

I know it's just a difference of 5 days, but any theories as to why the export Pils was lagered for less time? Just because it was expected to condition more during transport?

Ron Pattinson said...

Michael Foster,

I would read anything into that. The lagering times differed a little from batch to batch.

Ron Pattinson said...

Anonymous,

most of the big Dutch brewers were. Quite a lot of English beer was sold in Holland. A lot of it Stout, boy also Pale Ales and even Mild Ales.