German Dunkles in 2014

Generous as ever, I thought I’d treat you to some modern Dunkles to accompany the 19th-century ones.

I did a fairly extensive sweep of German brewery websites a couple of years back, looking for ones that listed both the gravity and the ABV. Using those two number, it’s relatively simple to work out the FG and the degree of attenuation.

Though it should be borne in mind that this is slightly different from a chemical analysis. At small breweries, there probably isn’t 100% consistency in hitting those numbers. And large breweries might well be deliberately undershooting to reduce their tax bill.

Somewhat arbitrarily, I’ve divided the beers into Dunkles Lagerbier and Dunkles Export, using a gravity of 12.5º as the dividing line. The distinction between Lagerbier and Export has rather eroded in recent years, so don’t take these classifications too seriously.

Let’s start with Dunkles Export:

Dunkles Export in 2014
Brewer	Town	Beer	OG Plato	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
Paulaner	Munich	Münchner Dunkel	12.5	1050.3	1011.9	5.00	76.45%
Löwenbräu	Munich	Dunkel	12.5	1050.3	1008.2	5.50	83.70%
Hacker-Pschorr	Munich	Münchner Dunkel	12.5	1050.3	1011.9	5.00	76.45%
Weihenstephan	Freising	Tradition	12.8	1051.6	1011.6	5.20	77.51%
Klosterbrauerei Andechs	Andechs	Export Dunkel	12.5	1050.3	1012.8	4.87	74.56%
Göller	Zeil am Main	Dunkel	12.5	1050.3	1010.4	5.20	79.43%
Kulmbacher Brauerei	Kulmbach	Tradition	12.8	1051.6	1011.6	5.20	77.51%
Privatbrauerei Gessner	Sonneberg	Alt-Sumbarcher Dunkel	12.5	1050.3	1010.4	5.20	79.33%
Brauerei Weller	Erlangen	Jean-Paul-Bier	12.5	1050.3	1008.9	5.40	82.31%
Zum Löwenbräu Flair Hotel	Adelsdorf	Hausbräu Hefetrüb	12.7	1051.2	1012.7	5.00	75.18%
Brauerei Hofmann	Pahres	Dunkel	12.5	1050.3	1011.9	5.00	76.35%
Gasthof Gundel	Kammerstein	Dunkles Gold	12.6	1050.7	1010.8	5.20	78.72%
Brauereigasthof Winkler	Berching	Berchinger Dunkel	12.6	1050.7	1012.3	5.00	75.76%
Bürgerbräu Hersbruck	Hersbruck	Dampfsud	12.5	1050.3	1013.4	4.80	73.47%
Average			12.6	1050.6	1011.3	5.11	77.62%
Sources:
The relevant brewery websites

The gravities of these beers are pretty modest, and considerably lower than in 19th-century versions. As you can see from this table of the average of 39 samples from the late 19th century:

German Export Dunkles 1878 - 1900 averages
OG Plato	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
14.35	1058.2	1019.1	5.06	67.16%

There’s almost a 2º Plato difference between the average gravities. But the ABV of the modern examples is slightly higher because of the higher degree of attenuation. That’s almost always the case when you compare modern Lagers to ones from more than 100 years ago. Though 77% isn’t exceptional by modern standards.

Here are the Lagerbiers:

Dunkles Lagerbier in 2014
Brewer	Town	Beer	OG Plato	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
Wolf	Zeil am Main	Urbräu	11.5	1046.1	1008.5	4.90	81.57%
Einbecker Brauhaus	Einbeck	Dunkel	11.50	1046.1	1008.5	4.90	81.57%
Walhaus-Bräu	Erfurt	Stock-Dunkel	12.2	1049.1	1009.9	5.10	79.82%
Schübel Bräu	Stadtsteinach	Dunkel	11.7	1047.0	1009.3	4.90	80.19%
Brauerei Kanone Löhr	Schnaittach	Dunkel	12.4	1049.9	1010	5.20	79.96%
Brauerei Windsheimer	Gutenstetten	Dunkel	12.4	1049.9	1010	5.20	79.96%
Average			12.0	1048.0	1009.4	5.0	80.51%
Sources:
The relevant brewery websites

The rate of attenuation in these lower gravity versions is even higher, so much so that the average ABV almost matches that of the 19th-century beers.