Dark days for Rotterdam

Just for a little variation, we're back in wartime Holland. Makes a change from Britain.

There were many parallels between the circumstances in Britain and Holland in the early war years. Raw materials were getting scarcer and the strength of beer was falling. There was also a restriction in the type of beer brewed. What was on sale wasn't always exactly what customers wanted.

PUBLICANS SHORT OF PILSNER

"dark" days for Rotterdam on the way?

ROTTERDAM REQUEST FOR "EENHEIDSBIER"

The rationing of beer, that most breweries in the country introduced in consultation with each other, is not merely a concern of those breweries and, on the other side of the public. Café owners are, as a link between the two, very closely involved. And precisely in these circles, rationing caused has caused a clear concern. The publican now feels more or less threatened in their existence by their allotted rations of beer, which as we know, is about twenty percent smaller than normal turnover.

That unrest became clear at a recent meeting of interested parties in Rotterdam.

To understand properly, brewers of Pilsner beer have had to reduce supplies by twenty per cent in because of their raw materials situation. They have tried to compensate for this, partly by delivering more dark lager, a type of beer has which never been highly regarded and that even under the current circumstances has little attraction. Breweries have been compelled to stick to a certain ratio in the supply of heavy beer and lager beer, from means that a significant portion of the supply of heavy beer has to be replaced by lager. One brewery has now made a proposal to its Rotterdam customers. This proposal involves only serving dark lager, for the time being one day a week, in all Rotterdam cafes. In return the brewery declares that it is prepared to take sanctions against landlords who would like to circumvent the system and it also wants to try to persuade other breweries to adopt a similar scheme.

From what was said at the meeting it was clear that this proposal would only find favour as a transitional measure. According to the generally prevailing opinion, brewers can produce the normal amount of liquid by a certain reduction in the amount of raw materials. Which is why a motion approved by the meeting was sent to the National Office for the hotel, café, restaurant and accommodation industry and to the Ministry of Food, in which they were asked to cooperate so that breweries can produce an eenheidsbier of pale and dark colour, so pubs will receive a sufficient quantity of beer.
"Het Vaderland : staat- en letterkundig nieuwsblad" 20th March 1941. (My translation.)

Dark days? I'd have thought having the city centre blown to buggery was slightly worse than having to drink dark Lager. Not sure how to translate "eenheidsbier". Standard beer, perhaps. Literally, it means "unity beer".

Funnily enough, I've got some brewing records from the relevant period. Would you like to take a look? Of course you do. Not only are these records from the correct period, they're from the right city. They come from Heineken's Rotterdam brewery. Which was luckily just outside the area destroyed by German bombing. I should know. I used to live just around the corner. The building is still there, though it hasn't brewed for many decades.

Heineken beers in 1941
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
16th Jul	1941	Pils	Pils	1033.5	1009.3	3.20	72.24%
16th Jul	1941	Beiersche	Münchener	1033.5	1009.3	3.20	72.24%
16th Jul	1941	Donker Lagerbier	Donker Lagerbier	1025.3	1007.2	2.40	71.74%
17h Jul	1941	Pils	Pils	1021.4	1006.3	2.00	70.56%
17h Jul	1941	Licht Lagerbier	Licht Lagerbier	1025.3	1007.2	2.40	71.74%
Source: Heienken brewing records held at the Amsterdams Stadsarchief document number 834 - 1760

You can see that gravities had fallen again since the reduction of January 1941 that I reported on a few days ago. And on the 17th July they were cut again, leaving the Pils just 2% ABV. Dark days indeed.