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?

  

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1996 Youngs Wheat Beer

In the 1990s, Youngs brewed a wide range of beers. Including some which weren’t very traditional. At least, not traditional British styles. This wheat beer being a good case in point.

It’s a rather odd beer. Exactly what type of wheat beer were they aiming for? The coriander is very much Witbier rather than Weizen. And using lager yeast to ferment it is very much against the Reinheitsgebot, which only allows wheat in top-fermenting beer. On the other hand, it’s fermented warm, despite using lager yeast. I’m confused.

The grist is pretty simple, just lager and wheat malt. With slightly more of the former. So, sort of Reinheitsgebot.  Except for the lager yeast, obviously.

Half of the coriander was added to the kettle, the other half to the hop back. Not sure why there were the two additions. Interestingly, there was only one hop addition, at the start of the boil. A single type of English hops was used.

1996 Youngs Wheat Beer
lager malt	4.75 lb	52.72%
wheat malt	4.25 lb	47.17%
ground coriander	0.01 lb	0.11%
Fuggles 67 min	1.125 oz
OG	1041
FG	1007
ABV	4.50
Apparent attenuation	82.93%
IBU	15
SRM	2.9
Mash at	149º F
Sparge at	163º F
Boil time	67 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	Wyeast 2042 Danish lager

 

Charles Guerrier interview part two

I talk to Charles Guerrier some more about beer in Asia.

 

Beer in the DDR (part 2)

 Time for the second lot of DDR slides. Lots of tables. I love tables. Especially ones stuffed full of lovely, plump numbers.

 

A note about the hop growing. The first hops were planted in 1950 by Sudeten Germans expelled from Bohemia. Initially the hops were all Saaz. In the 1960s, Northern Brewer was introduced and eventally accounted for around 90% of the cultivated area.

Beer in the DDR (part 1)

I gave a talk at the Heimbrau Convention about brewing in the DDR a couple of weeks ago. A couple of people requested that I publish the slides. 

So here they are.. At least the first 10 slides. The other 345 slides will follow.