Dutch Lager Styles 1870 - 1960 (part five)

Lager styles of the 1890’s
Cartel forming amongst brewers is nothing new. They were at it back in the 1890’s. Luckily for me, because the draught agreement tells us a lot about what was being brewed in the 1890’s.

1893 price-fixing agreement
beer type	max. º Balling	minimum price per litre
Hollandsch Bier	9º	7 cents
Nieuw Hollandsch Bier	9º	7 cents
Lager Bier	11º	9 cents
Extra Lager Bier	11º	9 cents
Pilsener	15º	9 cents
Münchener	15º	9 cents
Dortmunder	15º	14 cents
Brown Stout	16º	16 cents
Extra Stout	19º	20 cents
Source:
"Korte Geschiedenis der Heineken's Bierbouwerij Maatschappij N.V. 1873 - 1948" (p.421, 422)

It’s worth noting that these are maximum gravities. In practice, Pilsener would have been well below 15º Plato. Dortmunder, on the other hand, with its minimum price of 14 cents, was probably closer to that maximum.  Lager Bier and Extra Lager Bier were presumably lower-strength pale or dark Lagers.



1900 - 1914
Despite the success of these new concerns Dutch beer production was stagnant at around 1.5 million hectolitres annually in the years leading up to WW I .

A range of Lager styles were produced, in a variety of strengths and colours. At this point Pils still did not have the dominant position it later acquired. That’s demonstrated by a quick look at Heineken’s brewing records. I won’t claim this is a definitive breakdown of the relative amounts of if each type of beer brewed by Heineken. It’s just what’s on four random pages that I photographed. But it does give some idea of the proportions.

On every single page around half of the brews were of Gerste. Second most popular, by a long way, was Lager , a lower-gravity Pale Lager that was the equivalent of Winterbier or Schenkbier.

Heineken Rotterdam production by type in 1911
type	no. of brews	size of brew (HL)	total amount	% of total
Lager	226	270	61,020	36.13%
Gerste	356	220	78,320	46.37%
Beiersch	28	200	5,600	3.32%
Pils	107	200	21,400	12.67%
Bok	17	150	2,550	1.51%
total	734		168,890
Source:
Heineken brewing record held at the Amsterdam Stadsarchief, document number 834-1752.

It’s clear that Pils was still very much a minority drink and that Beiersch was already a marginal product.

The share of Bok was undoubtedly lower as I’ve based these figures on the number of brews of each type at a certain point in the brewing year, in this case June. It ran up until the end of September so while all the brews of Bok appear in the figures, only about 75% of those for the other styles do.

This is an overview of the beers Heineken Rotterdam brewed in 1911:

Heineken Rotterdam beers in 1911
Bier	OG Balling	FG Balling	app.degree attenuation	% ABV	Colour	hops (gm/hl)
Pils	13.2	4.15	68.56%	4.8	6	235.3
Lager	9.8	3.3	66.33%	3.4	9	168.1
Gerste	12	5	58.33%	3.7	13.5	180.2
Beiersch	13.1	5.3	59.54%	4.2	13	175.9
Bok	16.7	7.5	55.09%	5	14	196.1
Source:
Heineken brewing records held at the Amsterdam Stadsarchief

The poor degree of attenuation is typical of early Lagers. Even the Pils is less than 70% attenuated. You’ll see how this changed  over the course of the 20th century.