Beer in the DDR (part 7)

More individual DDR beer styles. 

What I like about the standards for DDR beers is that they are so specific that you could easily brew beers based on them. Also using the rules on ingredients, for example, on the malt percentages, and hop types and quantities. It's a dream of mine to have a DDR beer festival, with examples of all the different styles. Oddly, no-one seems that keen on brewing these beers. Which is a shame. Get in touch if you fancy giving any of these styles a try.

Getting back to the slides, Märzen is another style which exists in the standards documents and for which I have labels, but which seemed to be extremely rare. I certainly never came across it. Which is a shame, as it sounds like an interesting beer. Strangely, it was unfiltered, but pasteurised. And only came in bottles.

Extra is another odd one. A sort of Schankbier version of Helles. It's another type that I can't remember ever seeing. And one which didn't have an equivalent in the West.

Weizenbier was so rare that I don't even have a label for it. Meaning I don't even have an idea of which breweries might have brewed it. The OG was a bit lower than in the West, where Weizen was usually over 12º Plato.

Lichtenhainer was a local style, only found around Jena in Thüringen. It was so obscure, that it doesn't even show up in the standards documents. It died out in the early 1980s.

Gose is brewed all over the place now. It was only brewed sporadically in the DDR, disappearing between 1966 and 1985. In its brief revival in the late 1980s, it was brewed at the Berliner Weisse brewery. Presumably because they were experienced in sour beer production. I spent years trying to track it down in the 1990s. Now every fucker makes one.

What was DDR beer like? Much better than its reputation. There were some excellent beers brewed. Sure, there were some crap ones. But that's true everywhere. I've been sticking up for it for the last 30-odd years. Many of those slagging DDR beer off never really drank any of it.

The Berliner Weisse was better than any of the West Berlin versions. Many of the Pilsators were excellent. As good as the Pale Lagers brewed in Czechoslovakia. Those form Mühlhausen and Sternquell were particularly good. And the standard Pilsners of Berlin were pretty decent.

The Gothaer beers were shit, mind.

This is the end of the presentation. Feel free to ask questions in the comments. 

 

 

 

Starting from zero

After the war, in what would become the DDR, the brewing industry faced some serious problems. Ones which the western part of Germany didn't have. These were caused by a combination of the division of Germany and the loss of territories to the East. 

The biggest of these problems were:

• no hop growing
• limited malting barley cultivation
• uneven distribution of breweries
• no brewing equipment manufacturers

The first two were agricultural problems, which needed to be addressed by encouraging the cultivation of hops and malting barley. The former had been exclusively grown in western parts of Germany. While much malt had been sourced either from the northern parts of West Germany or territory which now belonged to Poland.

Before the war, breweries in West Berlin had supplied much of the area around Berlin. With the country divided, new sources of beer needed to be found. Especially as the breweries in East Berlin didn't have the capacity to pick up the slack. One of the long-term solutions was to construct a large brewery in Potsdam, just outside Berlin.

It wasn't until the 1960s that the manufacture of brewing equipment really got underway. Even then, it could never produce enough to meet demand. I can understand now why many breweries were still using outdated equipment. It wasn't through laziness or a reluctance to invest. There just wasn't enough equipment available for everyone. And certain breweries - notably exporters like Radeberger and Wernesgrüner - got first dibs on the goodies.

People often bang on about the economic miracle of post-war West Germany. What the DDR achieved is far more impressive. It started from a much worse position. And, unlike West Germany, didn't have Marshall Plan money poured into it. Quite the opposite, with the Soviets actively removing industry and raw materials from the East.

This information is taken from Die Brau- und Malzindustrie in Deutschland-Ost zwischen 1945 und 1989, VLB, 2016, page 103.
 

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1996 Youngs Best Malt Ale (2)

Brewed just nine days later than the previous Best Malt Ale was this very different version. Higher in gravity and with a very different grist.

Interestingly, despite the higher gravity, a lower degree of attenuation leaves it barely stronger in ABV terms.

Brewed single-gyle, this iteration has basically the same grist as Winter Warmer. Except that there’s no torrefied barley. And looks more like versions from the late 1970s. As with most Dark Milds, there’s no malt darker than crystal. With much of the colour coming from sugar.

They were obviously playing around with the recipe as the hopping rate is much higher than the version brewed a few days earlier. Almost double, in fact. So much so, that I didn’t need to adjust the quantities of hops for once. A much longer boil also boosted the bitterness level.

The hops themselves were two English types, with no vintage indicated.

1996 Youngs Best Malt Ale (2)
pale malt	5.50 lb	76.07%
crystal malt 150 L	0.67 lb	9.27%
glucose	0.75 lb	10.37%
molasses	0.25 lb	3.46%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.06 lb	0.83%
Fuggles 125 min	1.75 oz
OG	1034
FG	1011
ABV	3.04
Apparent attenuation	67.65%
IBU	27
SRM	15
Mash at	153º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	125 minutes
pitching temp	64º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

Listen to brewer John Hatch explain how they brewed at Youngs in the 1990s.  

Beer in the DDR (part 6)

Today we continue with the individual beer styles of the DDR.

What I find fascinating is how they were mostly pretty much the same as in West Germany. But not exactly. And how there were some styles which were unique to the DDR. Schwarzbier being a good example of a beer which only really existed in the East.

There are multiple slides on Berliner Weisse because, well, I have more information. And I particularly liked the version brewed in the East, at the former Willner brewery. It was a wonderful beer. Sour, bone dry and very complex. You just had to ignore the funny looks when you ordered it "ohne Schüss", that is, without syrup. I don't think I ever saw anyone else drinking it straight.

I was recently given a bottle from the 1980s. I'm saving it until I can find someone who can culture up whatever is in it in the way of yeast and bacteria. Having seen photos of the brewery, where there were open wooden fermenters, I imagine that there's quite a cocktail of microflora.

Porter is a style which while not unique to the East, was much more common there than in the West. Not sure exactly why that was. The eastern version was remarkably authentic, having a top-fermenting primary fermentation and a Brettanomyces secondary.

Doppel-Karamel was unique to the DDR. And really weird. It was brewed as a 6º Plato Dunkel Malzbier, then, after primary fermentation sugar was added to bring the virtual OG up to 12º Plato. Amazingly, a couple of breweries in the former DDR still brew examples.

The base low-gravity Dunkel Malzbier was also sold straight. Surprisingly, not just in bottled form, but also on draught. Not sure how common that was. I certainly never came across it in that form.

 

Conical fermenters in the DDR

In one of my Brewing in the DDR slides I mentioned the adoption of conical fermenters. I thought that I'd expand on that a little. Based on a section of "Die Brau- und Malzindustrie in Deutschland-Ost zwischen 1945 und 1989".

I may have banged on about DDR brewing retaining much pre-war equipment. But it wasn't totally immune to modern brewing technology. As is demonstrated by the development of conical fermenters locally. Despite there being no manufacturers of brewing equipment when the DDR was founded. The industry having been all located in West Germany.

Two prototype tanks, based on the Asahi design were built in 1970. The first production version was installed at the Sternburg Brewery in Lützschena early in 1971. It had a capacity of 2,500 hl and had external cooling. Later, two identical tanks were installed at Kindl in Berlin.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, 379 conical fermenters were installed at 29 of the 161 breweries in the DDR. Obviously, these were at the larger and more important breweries. For example, export breweries such as Wernesgrüner and Radeberger, and the large Berlin breweries Kindl-Weißensee, Bürgerbräu, Schultheiss Leninallee and Bärenquell.

The part of Thüringen I knew best, what was then the Bezirk of Erfurt had only one brewery with conical fermenters: Gotha. Is it a coincidence that it was the one brewery in the region whose beers I really didn't care for?

There were three sizes of tank: 1000/1300 hl, 2500 hl and 5500 hl. Most were 25000 hl, with only a handful of 5500 hl tanks. Doubtless more breweries would have installed conical fermenters, had the DDR not ceased to exist.

Brewing technology is a good example of the disadvantages the DDR faced.It was locked out of German suppliers by the division of the country and of international ones by being in the socialist block. Leaving them little option but to try to develop their own brewing equipment industry.

This information comes from "Die Brau- und Malzindustrie in Deutschland-Ost zwischen 1945 und 1989" pages 100 and 101. 

Beer in the DDR (part 5)

Not finished yet with my DDR talk. Clearly, it's better when I'm giving it in person. As then you get all my bad jokes.

You do, at least, get to admire some of my DDR label collection. I have, literally, hundreds of the things. I just really love the aesthetic. And they bring back back happy memories of the socialist days.

These slides are where I start running through the styles individually. Starting with the most popular type, Helles. 

Various types of Pilsner were brewed. With Pilsner Spezial and Pilsator being more heavily hopped an containing better quality ingredients. Some of the Pilsators were cracking beers. For example, the one from Sternquell in Plauen whose label decorates the appropriate slide.

Dunkles is a type that I never came across in the wild. There can't have been much of it brewed. I only have a few labels for it. 

 

  

Amsterdam April 2026

I wander around a few Amsterdam pubs. 

 

Let's Brew - 1996 Youngs Best Malt Ale

I’m not exactly sure when Youngs dropped their Mild. Sometime between 1983 and 1986. Then, in 1996, there was an attempt to revive it. I have three examples from that year, and all three are different.

This is the weirdest of the bunch. Being parti-gyled with Oatmeal Stout. Making this, effectively, a watered-down Stout. Not wanting a huge quantity of Mild – this batch was just 39 barrels – it made sense to parti-gyle it. Though Winter Warmer would have been a more sensible choice.

The grist is rather odd for a Mild, containing both roast barley and flaked oats. It must have been quite different in character from the 1980s version. Were there still any Mild drinkers around who remembered the earlier beer? There must have been, as the beer had only been gone for a decade or so.

There were two types of English hops, as in most of their beers. I’ve increased the amounts to get the right bitterness level. 

1996 Youngs Best Malt Ale
pale malt	5.50 lb	78.97%
roast barley	0.50 lb	7.18%
flaked oats	0.50 lb	7.18%
glucose	0.33 lb	4.74%
molasses	0.125 lb	1.79%
caramel 2000 SRM	0.01 lb	0.14%
Fuggles 70 min	1.50 oz
Goldings 10 min	0.50 oz
OG	1031
FG	1008.5
ABV	2.98
Apparent attenuation	72.58%
IBU	25
SRM	15
Mash at	149º F
Sparge at	165º F
Boil time	78 minutes
pitching temp	61.5º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

 

Listen to brewer John Hatch explain how they brewed at Youngs in the 1990s.  

Beer in the DDR (part 4)

Still more of my DDR beer talk slides.

Kicking off with a nice drawing of a Steinecker brew house. Though I'm not sure if any brewery had enough hard currency to buy such a system. Most brewing equipment was manufactured in the DDR. There were some occasions, though, when some was imported from West Germany. Usually, because there wasn't the capacity to produce it in the DDR.

We then continue with boiling and hopping rates. Not much to say about that. Obviously, beers like Pilsner were amongst the most heavily hopped.  Porter was the beer which received the most hops. Which made sense, as it was both very strong and  a beer.

Fermentation follows. As most beers were bottom-fermented, the temperature was pretty low.

Lagering was mostly in horizontal tanks. Though from the 1980s some of the larger breweries started to install conical fermenters where beer was both fermented and lagered. Full-strength beers were lagered for three to six 

The shelf-life of bottled beers was mostly shorter than the lagering time. Just 8 days for Helles.I remember Eisenach Helles not being particularly stable. You wouldn't want top walk back from the shops too slowly in case it had gone off before you got hoe,.

We finish by starting to look at DDR beer styles. 

 

Beer in the DDR (part 3)

Yes, more slides from my DDR talk.

There's more stuff about the DDR hop industry. Including information about how hops were used. Showing how much hop extract could be used. And the small quantity of aroma hops used. Mostly in the posher types of beer.

Then there's some stuff about mashing. Fun fact: the DDR Helles mashing scheme is very similar to how Budweiser was brewed in the 1990s. Both have a rice cereal mash that is used as a decoction. How odd is that?