Dutch Lager Styles 1870 - 1960 (part eight)

Output by style in 1929

Heineken Rotterdam production by type in 1929
type	no. of brews	size of brew (HL)	total amount	% of total
Licht	95	440	41,800	14.46%
Donker	48	770	36,960	12.79%
Bayerisch	41	295	12,095	4.19%
Pils	491	395	193,945	67.11%
Bok	21	200	4,200	1.45%
total	696		289,000
Source:
Heineken brewing record held at the Amsterdam Stadsarchief, document number 834-1754.

There’s been a massive change between 1911 and 1929, with Gerste disappearing altogether and Pils dominating production. Pils was around two-thirds of sales with Licht Lager a very distant second. It’s quite a transformation.

Heineken Rotterdam beers in 1930
Beer	OG Balling	FG Balling	app. degree attenuation	% ABV	Colour	kg hop/hl
Pils	12.2	3.8	68.85%	4.7	4	0.21
Licht	9.2	3	67.39%	3.5	3	0.17
Donker	9	3.2	64.44%	3.5	11	0.14
Bayerisch	13	5.45	58.08%	5	14	0.17
Bok	17.6	8.45	51.99%	7.1	15	0.19
Source:
Heineken brewing records held at the Amsterdam Stadsarchief

There are a few significant differences compared to 1911. The colour of Pils has fallen from 6 to 4, while Bayerisch has got slightly darker, going from 13 to 14. The gravity of Pils has fallen from 13.2 to 12.2 but as the FG has also fallen, attenuation and ABV remain similar. The hopping rates are pretty much unchanged.

Gerstebier has disappeared, seemingly replaced by a dark version of Lagerbier.

The sales of all types of beer went into steep decline in the early 1930’s due to the Wall Street crash. Output declined from 2,319,000 hl in 1929 to 1,609,000 hl in 1933 - a fall of 31%. This is how much sales fell at various breweries in the first five months of 1933 compared to the same months the previous year:

Fall in sales of Lagerbier and Fijnbier 1932 - 1933
Brewery	Lager	Fijn	Total
H.B.M. (Heineken)	7.26%	12.83%	11.09%
Amstel	10.46%	16.44%	13.72%
van Vollenhoven	15.31%	15.23%	15.28%
Z.H.B.	14.54%	20.12%	17.32%
Oranjeboom	13.59%	22.52%	18.64%
Source:
Letter from Amstel to the Bond van Nederlandsche Brouwerijen held in the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, doscument number 204 - 35.

By Fijnbier, I think they mean full-strength Lagers like Pils. Sales were falling off a cliff. How to explain that? The letter-writer suspected it was due to Lagerbier being passed off as Pils in pubs.