German and English Beer Types Compared in the 1930’s

In case you hadn’t guessed, this is more from the Wahls. Where they compare British top-fermenting beer with German bottom-fermenting beer.

I love this sort of stuff. These were the two main families of beer at the time. Still are today, really. And the USA was one of the few places in the world where they were both brewed in large quantities.

But first a quick overview of each group:

“The continental lager beers are termed bottom fermentation beers because the yeast settles to the bottom of the fermenting vat while the English beers are termed top fermentation beers because the yeast works to the top where it is removed by skimming. This skimming is generally done with the aid of what is called a parachute, a funnel that can be rotated, raised or lowered with a pipe connection extending through bottom of open vat through which the yeast passes into the yeast vat. Another method is by cleansing, that is, the yeast is allowed to work out of the bung hole at the top of the cask. In the case of unions holding usually about four American barrels they are provided with a curved tube, a so-called swan neck. Through these the yeast works from the bung hole into a common trough running along the upper side of the casks.”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, pages 155 - 156.

It’s one of the few times I’ve ever seen cleansing mentioned in an American document. It seems to have been dropped very early in US Ale-brewing. Having seen how much of a head bottom-fermenting yeast throws, cleansing probably wouldn’t be out of order in Lager-brewing, too. Though I suppose lagering and filtering took care of yeast removal.

Now some more detail:

“German and English Beer Types Compared
German beers are all of the so-called lager beer type undergoing cold storage in artificially cooled cellars whereas the English beers, like ale, porter, stout, are produced without any refrigeration of cellars whatever. They are either put out directly after fermentation as are the mild "1 day ales and porters" of London or are stored for a considerable period in casks as are the stock ales and stouts which are heavily brewed for high sugar content in the wort and are consequently highly alcoholic and heavily hopped. Two pounds of hops are brewed in per barrel for stock ale; besides, these stock ales are further dry-hopped in the storage tanks. The stouts are heavily hopped in brewing but are not dry-hopped.”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, pages 154 - 155.

Again, I think the Wahls were discussing British beer from before WW I. Not many British beers were being brewed in Stock form in the 1930’s. Just a few very special Strong Ales and Stouts. Everyday Stouts were not aged before sale and weren’t particularly high in alcohol.

Here are Barclay Perkins beers as proof:

Barclay Perkins Ales 1928 - 1931
Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	dry hops (oz / barrel)	colour
1928	Ale 4d	Mild	1028.8	1006.5	2.95	77.43%	7.43	0.90		34
1928	X	Mild	1042.9	1011.0	4.22	74.35%	5.50	0.94		42
1929	DB	Brown Ale	1040.6	1009.0	4.18	77.82%	7.50	1.20
1928	IPA bottling	IPA	1045.8	1012.0	4.47	73.80%	8.00	1.44	3.00	15
1928	PA	Pale Ale	1052.7	1013.0	5.25	75.32%	6.49	1.36	3.00	20
1931	PA (trade)	Pale Ale	1052.6	1014.5	5.04	72.43%	7.50	1.57	3.00	23
1929	PA export	Pale Ale	1058.9	1017.0	5.55	71.15%	8.89	2.00	4.00	21
1931	XLK	Pale Ale	1044.6	1008.5	4.78	80.95%	8.00	1.47	3.00	22
1931	KK	Strong Ale	1055.7	1014.0	5.52	74.86%	9.00	1.98	3.00	88
1928	KK bottling	Strong Ale	1069.4	1021.5	6.34	69.04%	11.00	2.99	8.00	96
1928	KKKK	Strong Ale	1079.0	1024.0	7.27	69.61%	11.00	3.44	4.00	120
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/614.

Barclay Perkins Porters 1928 - 1929
Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	dry hops (oz / barrel)	colour
1929	TT	Porter	1033.0	1012.0	2.77	63.58%	6.00	0.81		240
1929	IBS	Stout	1060.7	1022.5	5.05	62.93%	8.00	1.95		290
1928	OMS	Stout	1050.9	1017.0	4.48	66.57%	6.50	1.36		220
1928	RNS	Stout	1054.5	1017.5	4.90	67.91%	8.00	1.80		320
1929	SBS	Stout	1054.7	1019.0	4.72	65.24%	7.50	1.68		260
1928	IBS Ex	Stout	1102.8	1042.0	8.05	59.16%	14.19	6.75	10.66	680
1928	BBS Ex	Stout	1080.0	1027.5	6.94	65.62%	15.00	5.15	8.00	320
1928	BS Exp	Stout	1071.6	1022.0	6.56	69.27%	14.00	4.29	8.00	240
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/614.

I’ve used Barclay Perkins and not Whitbread for a reason: the former includes dry-hopping details and the latter doesn’t. I believe only these six were aged: IBS Ex, BBS Ex, BS Exp, KK bottling, KKKK and PA export. Unsurprisingly, they also have the highest level of dry-hopping.

You can see that Stock Stouts were both very heavily hopped in the kettle and dry-hopped, despite the claim of the Wahls. Though running Stouts were, indeed, without dry hops. Most of Barclay Perkins Stock Beers had considerably more than two pounds of hops per barrel. As the Wahls are probably talking in US barrels, which are smaller than imperial ones, you need to knock about 25% off the value in the tables. Which still leaves most of the examples way over 2 lbs per barrel.

Next time we’ll be looking at storage of British and German beers. Where I think there’s a huge howler in the Wahls’ text.