Heineken's first Lager

Yes. Yet more Heineken shit. Going a bit further back this time. Back to when they were just starting to switch from top to bottom fermentation.

It's unusual to have a review of the first appearance of a beer. Especially one that's become as big as Heineken. Though it isn't quite what tou might assume.

"Mr Gerard A. Heineken, the owner of the Hooiberg, one of the oldest breweries in our city, is one of those industrialists, to whose entrepreneurial spirit and energy the young Amsterdam owes great thanks. He develops a useful branch of industry in Amsterdam, which was rightly proud of its brewers in earlier times, and by honoring the taste of the day and brewing Bavarian beer, he has given the Dutch the opportunity to purchase an excellent folk drink, brewed on their own soil. Last night, at his request, a few hundred residents of the town came to taste the new brew, which was excellent. It is proverbially difficult to judge the taste of others, but if the public wants to know the subjective opinion of a hundred Amsterdammers regarding this new Bavarian beer, then we can say that it is a spicy, clear, very tasty drink, which seemed to us to combine the good qualities of Viennese beer with those of Bavarian beer. "May this beer soon become generally known, and refresh thousands!" Wished one of the guests at the Vyfhoek. We share this wish, and hope that Heineken's Bavarian will soon be as well known in the Netherlands, as Guinness's Porter in Ireland, as Bass's Ale in England."
Algemeen Handelsblad 24-02-1870.

Sadly, Heineken is now better known in England that Bass Ale.

Why not what you might have assumed? Because this wasn't a Pilsner, but a beer called Beiersch. Which means Bavarian in Dutch. That is, a dark Lager in the Munich style. In the early days of Lager expansion, it wasn't Pilsner, but Vienna and Munich Lagers which were all the rage. Hence the reference to those two types of beer in the article.

At one point, Heineken brewed both a Munich and a Vienna Lager. Sadly, I've no details for the latter, as it was dropped before the earliest brewing records I've seen. All I've seen are labels.

Vienna Beer arrives in London

It was only in the 1860’s that Lager became regularly available to drinkers in Britain. Two events were the catalyst to Lager’s arrival: the 1867 Great Exhibition in Paris the hot summer of 1868.

One of the big hits at the Paris Exhibition was the Vienna beer hall. Inspired by its success, similar beer halls began to spring up in Paris . British visitors to the exhibition were suitably impressed. A particularly hot summer the following year made cool Lager beer seem particularly inviting. In the southeast of England there was at least one day over 32º C in every month between May to September and in July alone there were 9 days over 32º C – . It sounds like the weather was very similar to 1976: a long drought and high temperatures for months on end.

By the end of 1868 there were five places selling Viennese Lager in London, two on the Strand and three in the city . The beer they sold was Märzen, either from Dreher’s brewery in Schwechat or from Liesing:

	DREHERS BEER, bought at the Vienna Restaurant, 395, Strand.	LIESING BEER, bought at the Crown Coffee-house, 41,  Holborne.
Specific gravity	1,019.76	1,019.11
Alcohol	4.43	4.45
Acetic acid	0.12	0.13
Extract	7.05	6.82
Original gravity	1,062.27	1,061.67

Some things never change. The Austrian Märzen sold in London was more expensive than locally-brewed beer. Much more expensive. A pint of Dreher or Liesing Märzen would cost you 6d . Or 2.5p. Sounds pretty cheap, doesn’t it? But let’s put that into perspective. A pint of Mild Ale, also with a gravity in the low 1060’s, was only 2d, a third of the price .

Bavarian Beer, presumably from Munich, was also available in London. At the Royal Bavarian Restaurant, at 30 Oxford St., for example. This was a little weaker than the Viennese Märzen at 1058º and 5% ABV, but still cost 6d a pint. Compared to British beers, it was terrible value.

Looking at the wholesale price of Vienna Lager, it’s not surprising that it retailed at three times the price of Mild. The importer paid £5 6s. 6d for a 36-gallon barrel:

The beer itself in Austria	46s.
carriage to England,	26s.
duty,	24s.
return of cask,	7s. 6d
Source:
Pall Mall Gazette - Thursday 28 January 1869, page 5.

£5 6s. 6d is 106s. 6d, almost exactly triple the 36s. a 36-gallon barrel of Mild Ale would cost.

It didn’t take long for Lager to spread outside London. In December 1868, the Bavarian Beer Hall, at 204 Oxford Street, Manchester was advertising “Genuine Bavarian Lager, Vienna & Bock Beer. In March 1869 the Dundee Courier reported that a “well-known establishment in Miller Street”, Glasgow had started selling Vienna beer.




Like this? Then you'll love the book it comes from, Lager! (UK):

Dutch Lager Styles 1870 - 1960 (part three)

The first Dutch Lagers
The Lagers initially brewed in Holland were called Beiersch and were in the Munich Dark Lager style. Munich beers were the prototypical Lagers and it was only when bottom-fermenting techniques spread outside Bavaria that Lagers began to be brewed in other hues.

Dutch  Beiersch was roughly the equivalent of a Munich Sommerbier or Lagerbier. It had a gravity higher than Pilsener – 13º to 14º Plato, was less lightly hopped and more poorly attenuated than Lager of the Pilsener type.

Gerstebier was originally a top-fermenting style, but Heineken used the name for a cheap and cheerful type of Lager.  Baartz, of Oranjeboom in Rotterdam, described Gerstebier in 1884 as "although a bottom-fermented beer, it is of a low gravity and not lagered, and is a beer quick to make for a significantly lower price" ("een weliswaar ondergistend bier, maar van licht gehalte en geen Lagerbier, maar een bier van snelle confectie en tot belangrijk lager prijs").*

Though this may well just be sour grapes on the part of Mr. Baartz. From other sources it seems that Gerste Bier was lagered.

Gerste Bier was brewed with Heinieken’s D strain of yeast, while the posher beers were brewed with their A strain, the one they still use today.

Beers called Vienna or Wiener – both Amstel and Heineken brewed one at some point – were presumably amber in the Austrian style.

Culmbacher, named after the Franconian town of Kulmbach, was a style brewed in several countries when Lager first began to spread from Central Europe. It was a very dark, almost black, Lager which was hopped at three times the rate of Munich Lagers.

Hopping rate per 100 pounds of beer
place	beer	lbs hops
Munich	Sommerbier	4
Munich	Winterbier	2.3
Bamberg	Sommerbier	8
Bamberg	Winterbier	4.4
Kulmbach	Sommerbier	12
Kulmbach	Winterbier	4
Karlsruhe	Sommerbier	7
Karlsruhe	Winterbier	2.9
Bohemia	Sommerbier	3.3
Bohemia	Winterbier	2.2
Prague	Sommerbier	4.4
England	Porter	12
England	IPA	32
Scotland	Ale	12
Source:
Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für öffentliche Gesundheitspflege, Volume 2, 1870, page 276.

Dortmunder, or Export, was originally slightly higher gravity than Pils and not as heavily hopped.

The Culmbacher and Vienna styles didn’t last that long in Holland.


Early Pils
The first mention I can find of Dutch-brewed Pilsener is from 1879. It wasn’t brewed in Amsterdam or Rotterdam, but in Amersfoort:

Het Nieuws van den Dag, 15-10-1879, page 4.

The first advert for their Pilsener I can find is dated 5th March 1879.





* "Korte Geschiedenis der Heineken's Bierbrouwerij Maatschappij N.V. 1873 - 1948", by H. A. Korthals, 1948, page 96.

American beer styles of the 1930’s – colour

As promised, I’m wringing the final drops of moisture out of the wet tea towel that is the Wahls’ "Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint". This time we’re looking at beer colour.

“Color, Clarity and Effervescence
The American public is disposed to judge beer according to visible properties like color, clarity and effervescence. Pale or extra pale beers may seem too dark to some. While dark beers are not generally flavored excepting probably in Bock beer season, that conforms with what we term the Lenten season, they are preferred by some connoisseurs who favor the Bavarian type of lager beer which differs from the light Pilsener generally served, in being of a less bitter type besides differences in color, clarity and effervescence. The color may not only be one of degrees of darkness but may suggest something faulty. It may appeal to the eye as reddish instead of purely dark. The latter characteristic comes naturally from the character of the malt in the process of kiln drying. Exceptionally high kiln dried malt is used in the manufacture of the celebrated Irish Stouts, like Guinness of Dublin. These beers are never reddish although they are very dark and sometimes almost black. This applies also to very dark lager beers, like the Kulmbacher.”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, pages 182 - 183.

I think there’s a misprint in there. Pretty sure that should read “dark beers are not generally favored .  . . “.

It’s pretty naïve believing colour in dark beer comes from highly-kilned malt. That’s not even totally true for Germany, where caramel or sinamar were/are used for colour.

Working out the colour of beer in the past is a really tricky. That’s why I’m always glad to see some numbers. Descriptions like “dark” or “brown” really don’t tell you much. So I’m delighted to see some hard figures here.

“Color by Tintometer Scale
Scientifically the color is determined by reference to a color scale established somewhat on the method adopted for the degree of color introduced in laboratory examination tests by the Lovibond Tintometer Method.

To indicate the niceties required by scientific methods and at the same time giving an idea of the differences in color of beer we give the following scale of variation in color from Pilsener to Kulmbacher.

Pilsener......... 0.5— 0.7 cc n/10 iodine solution*
Dortmunder...... 0.7— 1.5 cc "
Wiener.......... 2.0— 3.5 cc   " '
Muenchener...... 3-5— 5.0 cc "
Bock and Salvator. 5.0— 8.0 cc "
Kulmbacher...... 8.0—14.0 cc "
Irish Stout......12.00—18.0 cc "
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, page 183.

I’m surprised at how relatively pale Muenchener is. Only barely dark, by the look of it. While the bottom of the Vienna range looks yellow rather than amber or pale brown which you would expect. Whereas Kulmbacher, as billed, is near black.

It’s a shame that no American top-fermenting styles are listed. I’d love to know how dark Ales were back then. I suspect paler than British-brewed Ales.

“The color of the wort should be as near as possible that of the beer to be produced. It is described more minutely as light or dark Vienna and light or dark Bavarian. For Vienna beer it is not desirable to use color malt for deepening the color, which cannot be avoided, however, for Bavarian beers. The paler the color of the wort, the shorter should be the time of complete saccharification and the more sugar may and should the wort contain. The Lovibond tintometer is preferred for measuring color but when not available it is customary to determine the color of the wort by comparison with dilution of a tenth normal iodine solution.

* Amount in 100 cc of water.”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, pages 183 - 184.

So if you don’t use coloured malt in Vienna Lager how do you get the colour? Pretty sure the stuff about paler wort containing more sugar is total crap.

Pretty sure that’s it for this source. But not to worry. I’ll be starting on a Journal of the Institute of Brewing article next.

Nationally-distributed pre-Prohibition bottled beers

Yet more stuff from the Wahls’ book. This time I’m lifting no text, just a table.

But it’s a very important table. One that offers a glimpse into the world of American pre-Prohibition beers. It’s not just telling us about the physical nature of specific beers, it’s also saying what type of beers were popular and where they were brewed.

Now I knew that Milwaukee was a major brewing town. But I hadn’t quite realised how important it was nationally. 22 of the 35 beers in the table were brewed there. What’s even more interesting is that just one beer wasn’t brewed in the Mid-West – Salvator from Munich.

There’s not a single beer from the East Coast. Which is odd, as I know that as late as the 1930’s New York produced more beer than any other state, 17.5% of total production. Followed by another eastern state, Pennsylvania*. I infer from this that the beer brewed in the East was mostly consumed fairly locally. Not so odd as those were also the most populous states.

A disadvantage Eastern brewers had was that they brewed a large percentage of Ales, for which the demand decreased the further West you went. While the Mid-Western brewers were Lager all the way. I’m pretty sure than not a single beer in the table is an Ale.

A word about the styles in the table. I’ve added them, as the original table only had the beer name. They’re mostly my guess, though most I’ve simply classified as Lager.

Here’s the table. You may recognise a few names.

Nationally-distributed pre-Prohibition bottled beers
Brewer	Town	Beer	Style	Acidity	FG	OG	OG Plato	ABV	App. Atten-uation
Pabst	Milwaukee	Bock	Bock	0.22	1023.2	1058.0	14.31	4.25	58.70%
Paulaner	Munich	Salvator	Doppelbock	0.39	1033.5	1071.2	17.36	4.7	51.27%
Average				0.31	1028.3	1064.6	15.84	4.48	54.98%
Blatz	Milwaukee	Muenchener	Dunkles Export	0.19	1021.1	1055.9	13.81	4.39	60.97%
Miller	Milwaukee	Muenchener	Dunkles Export	0.19	1018.3	1053.1	13.16	4.41	64.36%
Pabst	Milwaukee	Bavarian	Dunkles Export	0.23	1027.7	1059.7	14.7	3.71	52.24%
Average				0.20	1022.4	1056.2	13.89	4.17	59.19%
Blatz	Milwaukee	Export	Export	0.189	1014.5	1050.0	12.42	4.52	69.89%
Schlitz	Milwaukee	Export	Export	0.18	1016.1	1049.4	12.29	4.35	66.31%
Hammond	Hammond, Indiana	Mühlhauser	Export	0.17	1015.1	1060.5	14.9	5.73	74.03%
Average				0.18	1015.2	1053.3	13.20	4.87	70.08%
Blatz	Milwaukee	Private Stock	Lager	0.19	1013.9	1050.8	12.62	4.71	71.71%
Cream City	Milwaukee	A. I. Cream	Lager	0.18	1014.0	1048.3	12.02	4.21	69.97%
Cream City	Milwaukee	Edelbräu	Lager	0.216	1016.3	1056.2	13.88	5.05	69.81%
Cream City	Milwaukee	Extra Stock	Lager	0.19	1013.9	1048.0	11.94	4.25	69.93%
Gettelman	Milwaukee	Pride	Lager	0.15	1011.0	1043.1	10.77	4.13	73.72%
Gettelman	Milwaukee	Best	Lager	0.2	1013.2	1046.7	11.65	4.3	70.90%
Gettelman	Milwaukee	Natural	Lager	0.18	1012.4	1047.7	11.87	4.52	73.13%
Miller	Milwaukee	Buffet	Lager	0.18	1015.1	1053.3	13.21	4.83	70.55%
Pabst	Milwaukee	Red, white & blue	Lager	0.16	1015.1	1047.0	11.72	3.43	66.81%
Pabst	Milwaukee	Doppelbräu	Lager	0.27	1025.0	1056.2	13.89	3.71	54.21%
Schlitz	Milwaukee	Pale	Lager	0.18	1016.0	1046.9	11.69	3.93	64.76%
Grand Rapids	Grand Rapids	Silver Foam	Lager	0.15	1013.2	1049.9	12.4	4.5	72.66%
Hammond	Hammond, Indiana	Malt Extract	Lager	0.18	1018.9	1054.6	13.51	4.41	64.17%
Heilemann	La Crosse	Old Style Lager	Lager	0.16	1010.8	1044.9	11.2	4.32	75.09%
McAvoy	Chicago	Club	Lager	0.16	1015.1	1049.6	12.33	4.36	68.45%
McAvoy	Chicago	Alma Mater	Lager	0.16	1015.0	1051.6	12.81	4.43	69.87%
Schoenhofen	Chicago	Edelweis	Lager	0.22	1014.9	1048.1	11.97	4.25	68.09%
Schoenhofen	Chicago	Select	Lager	0.21	1014.1	1046.7	11.63	4.16	68.70%
Tosetti	Chicago	Majestic	Lager	0.18	1018.7	1056.3	13.91	4.75	65.49%
Average				0.19	1015.1	1049.8	12.37	4.33	68.84%
Cream City	Milwaukee	Pilsner	Pilsner	0.17	1014.5	1048.0	11.94	4.16	68.84%
Independ. Milw.	Milwaukee	Pilsner	Pilsner	0.18	1013.9	1047.1	11.74	4.12	69.59%
Miller	Milwaukee	High Life	Pilsner	0.19	1018.3	1057.0	14.08	4.72	66.69%
Pabst	Milwaukee	Blue Ribbon	Pilsner	0.17	1016.5	1047.5	11.82	3.66	64.13%
Anheuser Busch	St. Louis	Budweiser	Pilsner	0.2	1014.1	1051.8	12.86	4.8	71.70%
Tosetti	Chicago	Bohemian	Pilsner	0.17	1012.8	1038.5	9.66	3.19	65.84%
Average				0.18	1015.0	1048.3	12.02	4.11	67.80%
Blatz	Milwaukee	Wiener	Vienna Lager	0.19	1013.9	1050.8	12.62	4.71	71.71%
Source:
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, page 168.

Interesting, eh? A general point first. It looks to me as if some of the beers are the same, just with a different name. For example, there are three Cream City beers with almost identical gravities: A. I. Cream, Extra Stock and Pilsner.

The three Muenchener beers look very much like the Wahls’ description of the style: around 14º Balling and a low degree of attenuation.

At just over 13º Balling, the average for the Exports looks about right, but that doesn’t really match any of the three examples. Two are just over 12º Balling and the third almost 15º Balling. I don’t think that’s really telling us anything.

Most of the beers I’ve classified as Lager have gravities around 12º Balling, though there are some over 13º Balling. The average degree of attenuation, at just under 70%, is about what you’d expect. Though it looks quite poor by modern standards.

The Pilsners average out to almost exactly 12º Balling, though there are two real outliers, Miller High Life  and Tosetti Bohemian. The latter looks like a Czech vycepni pivo, with a gravity of just under 10º Balling.

I’m not sure that the single Vienna Lager tells us much, other than to confirm a pretty standard gravity.

I’m not totally finished mining the Wahls’ book. Still something on beer colour to go.




* Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 42, Issue 5, September-October 1936, pages 416.

American beer styles of the 1930’s – Vienna Type Beer

Continuing our leisurely stroll through the beer styles of the 1930’s, we’ve arrived at one of the early Lager favourites.

The Vienna style of Lager was very much the creation of one man, bottom-fermenting pioneer Anton Dreher. His brewery in Klein Schwechat just outside Vienna soon became the largest in Continental Europe on the back of the success of his amber Lager, which was to be found in every capital in Europe.

But when Dreher died a relatively young man, Vienna Lager’s star began to dim as newer, paler styles took over. Which is why the first sentence of this quote surprises me:

“Vienna Type Beer
This type of beer has gained considerable popularity in America since the repeal of Prohibition. It contains approximately 3.8% alcohol when correctly brewed and can be produced with all malt of the same variety as used in brewing Pilsen beer; that is, one that has been dried at low temperatures, thus containing very little caramel. The boiling period should be shorter than that used in brewing the Muenchener type but longer than that used in brewing the Pilsener type. This beer can be satisfactorily produced from worts of 13% original extract. The hops employed should be approximately .65 pounds per barrel if the wort can be removed from the hops in less than one-half hour's time.”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, pages 171 - 172.

I would have expected the exact opposite: that Vienna Lager’s popularity was fading and the style shuffling towards extinction. That’s what you get for making assumptions: you  end up looking an idiot.

The hopping rate is exactly half way between Mild and Strong Pilsner, and is pretty light. A British beer of that strength would have had more than a pound a barrel. And the hopping rate was lower than pre-Prohibition. As you can see from this table:

Hopping rate for Vienna Lager
OG Balling	kg/hl	lbs/US barrel
12.5	0.36	0.93
13.5	0.4	1.03
Source:
"American Handy Book of the Brewing, Malting and Auxiliary Trades" by Robert Wahl and Max Henius, 1902, page 783.

I make that around 50% more hops in the older iteration.

How exactly do you brew an amber beer using all pilsner malt? Unless you’re using some sort of sugar or caramel to get the desired colour. Then again, you could totally cheat:

“The preferred method for producing beer having the characteristics of the Vienna type is to properly brew the mild Pilsener type and also the strong Muenchener type and then after storage these two beers are mixed in approximately equal proportions giving a resulting beer having characteristics midway between the mild Pilsener and the strong Munich beers. (See analysis on Vienna Type Beer.)”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, page 172.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this was more common than brewing Vienna as its own beer. Just makes life so much simpler.

Now here‘s a real-life Vienna Lager analysed:

VIENNA BEER
Reported by "Wahl Institute, April 21, 1936
This beer is composed of the following substances, reported in percentages or pounds per hundred:
Alcohol (by weight)	3.74
Real extract (dry substance)	5.2
Carbonic acid	0.59
Water	90.47
	100
The real extract (5.2) is made up of the following substances:
	In Percentage	In Percentage
	of the beer of	the extract
Acid (lactic)	0.117	2.25
Acid salts	0.117	2.25
Protein	0.503	9.67
Ash	0.15	2.89
Sugar (reducing)	1.276	24.54
Dextrins	3.037	58.4
	5.2	100
The following are important brewing figures:
Specific gravity of beer	1.015
Original balling of wort	12.68
Apparent extract of beer (balling)	3.75
Real attenuation.	7.48
Fermentable sugar in the wort	8.76
Apparent attenuation	8.93
Alcohol (by volume)	4.68
Percent of extract fermented	59
Percent of extract unfermented	41
Percent of sugars in original wort	69.1
Percent of non-sugars in original wort	30.9
pH value	4.7
Total acidity	0.234
Carbonic acid by volumes	3
Amlo dextrins	none
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, page 177.

At just 70%, the degree of attenuation is the lowest we’ve seen so far. Note that the gravity is lower than the 13º Balling suggested by the Wahls, though the ABW is pretty much spot on.

Next time we’ll be moving on to top-fermenting styles. Bet you won’t be able to sleep until then.

American bottom-fermenting styles in the 1930’s (part two)

We’re back again with the Wahls’ book from the 1930’s and its handy description of American styles of the day.

You may have heard of this style of Pale Lager from Central Europe:

“The Bohemian type of lager beer with a light yellow to greenish yellow color with pronounced hop flavor and bitter taste; the malt flavor in this beer is not pronounced; it is usually lively and sparkling; alcoholic content is 3.0 to 3.5 per cent by weight, from worts of about 12 per cent original extract; typical of Bohemian beer is the Pilsener from the city of Pilsen (Plzen) in Bohemia, and also the much favored mild American extra pale beers.”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, page 151.

It’s clear that Pilsener didn’t have the dominant position it later acquired. Though I’ll warn again that the information looks a bit dated to me and doesn’t necessarily reflect the true situation in the late 1930’s.

 I don’t have any analyses of US Pilseners from the 1930’s, but I do have a few German and Czech ones:

German and Czech Pilsener in the 1930's
Year	Brewer	country	Acidity	FG	OG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation	OG Plato	ABW
1930	Pilsner Urquell	Czech		1015.1	1049.8	0.69	4.46	68.71%	12.37	3.57
1935	Pilsner Urquell	Czech	0.05	1013.8	1049.4		4.62	72.06%	12.28	3.69
1930	average of 12 samples	Germany		1013.2	1051.5	0.65	4.93	73.34%	12.79	3.94
1930	strongest sample	Germany		1017.6	1054.8	0.81	4.29	66.67%	13.56	3.43
1930	weakest sample	Germany		1009.7	1049.6	0.59	5.10	79.58%	12.34	4.08
1935	Schultheiss Patzenhofer	Germany	0.05	1009	1049.8		5.32	81.93%	12.38	4.26
Sources:
"Van Brouwerij tot Bierglas" by F. Kurris, Doetinchem, 1948, pages 26-27
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.

An OG of around 12º Plato doesn’t seem far off the mark, but the ABW does. 3.5% to 4% would appear more accurate. The “much favoured” comment implies that very pale and mild Lagers were very popular in the USA. Which, despite the inroads of IPA, is still the case.

Now it’s the turn of one of the early favourites of the bottom-fermenting world, Vienna Lager:

“The Vienna type of lager beer has less pronounced character than either Muenchener or Pilsener types. In point of color, hop and malt aroma, smooth and bitter taste, it takes a place between these two types; alcoholic content of about 3.5 to 3.75 per cent by weight, from worts of about 13 per cent original extract, so named from Vienna (Wien); the most representative product coming from Klein-Schwechat — a suburb of Vienna where Anton Dreher introduced ice cooling of cellars in 1845.”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, pages 151 - 152.

Not having any analyses, I can’t comment as to the accuracy of the gravity and ABW quoted. Though it would be hard to generalise in any case because a brewery like Schwechat produced a range of styles with differing strengths.

“The Dortmunder type of lager beer with a very light color like Pilsener from long grown low kiln dried malt; a strong, very pronounced hop flavor; highly and completely attenuated; alcoholic content about 4 to 4.5 per cent by weight, from worts usually of 14.5 per cent original extract; it originated in Dortmund, near the Rhine in Westphalia.”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, page 152.

Let’s see how that stacks up with some real examples:

German Dortmunder Export in the 1930's
Year	Brewer	OG	FG	colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation	OG Plato	ABV	ABW
1930	average of 14 samples	1054	1012.2	0.73	5.39	76.44%	13.37	5.39	4.31
1930	strongest sample	1057.16	1014.3	0.84	5.58	73.85%	14.11	5.58	4.47
1930	weakest sample	1051.21	1009.4	0.66	5.08	80.88%	12.71	5.08	4.06
Source:
"Van Brouwerij tot Bierglas" by F. Kurris, Doetinchem, 1948, pages 26-27

Once again, the gravity quoted is a bit too high – 13.5º Plato would seem more accurate – though the ABW is about spot on. The attenuation is pretty high, as the book says. Even higher than for Pilseners, which is surprising. Note the colour is pretty much the same as the Pilseners.

Now some other dark Bavarian styles:

“Nurnberger and Wurzburger beers are somewhat darker than Muenchener and slightly heavier brewed. Kulmbacher beer is very dark, almost black, and brewed to 16 per cent original extract with over 4.5 per cent alcohol by weight. Maerzen beer is brewed in November but comes out in March in the Lenten season.   Salvator beers are lighter in color than Muenchener but brewed as strong and stored for months.   Bock beer is somewhat stronger than Muenchener and comes out around Christmas and like Maerzen is given long storage. Its name is not derived from the horned Billy goat usually depicted on advertisement posters but from the brewery of Einbeck near Hamburg. The American lager beers are generally patterned after these typical German beers. The season for Bock beer in America is the month of March.”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, page 152.

Great to have some more details of Kulmbacher. It sounds like a very dark Bock, based on that gravity.

I’m sure he’s wrong about Salvator. It definitely wasn’t a similar strength to ordinary Münchener and I doubt it was paler in colour, seeing as it had a similar grist but higher gravity. Why it’s not mentioned as being a kind of stronger Bock, I just don’t understand. And surely it was Salvator for Lent, not Märzen?

Finally, the USA’s own indigenous Lager style:

“California Steam Beer. This type of beer became popular in San Francisco. It is not a lager beer inasmuch as the brew is run directly from the fermenter into the trade packages (barrels). Krausen is then added to the beer in the trade package and the barrels are bunged and delivered to the taverns and placed on racks where fermentation is completed. At the time of kräusening isinglass is also added which aided in clarification during the short storage upon the tavern's racks. This beer is produced by bottom fermentation yeast and when drawn into the stein is very wild because of the high pressure developed in the barrel, the stein being nearly full with foam. This beer has been evidently brewed for this effect, the customers desiring this particular foamy character.”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, pages 152 - 153.

There are some handy details there. Racking directly from the fermenter into trade casks is definitely an unusual way to brew a bottom-fermenting beer. It sounds similar in some ways to the American “present use” Ales of the late 19th century which also had a lot of pressure in the trade cask. Kräusening and adding isinglass at the same time – it’s the sort of mix of British and German brewing practices you only really see in North America.

Next time it will be the turn of the top-fermenting styles.