Dutch-brewed Lager in the UK 1950 - 1963

Continuing my series on foreign-brewed Lager in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s, here are some from Holland.

One thing is immediately obvious: all these beers were brewed specifically for the UK market. How do I know that? Because they're all way too weak to have been sold in Holland, where Pils is always a standard 5% ABV. They have the typical OG of British Lagers of the period: somewhere in the low 1030ºs.

The names are pretty much as you would expect. Heineken, Amstel, Oranjeboom, ZHB. You might not have heard of the last one. It stands for Zuidhollandse Bierbrouwerij, which was a decent-sized brewery in The Hague. It closed in the early 1970s. Loosje, on the Nieuwe Markt in Amsterdam has a wonderful depiction of the brewery in tiles.

Bierbrouwerij De Wereld I'd never heard of. It was located in the village of Raamsdonk in Noord Brabant. The beers in the table can't have been brewed there because the brewery was bought and closed by Oranjeboom in 1948.

The one simply called Breda, must be Drie Hoefijzers. Which in 1968 formed Verenigde Nederlandse Brouwerijen Breda-Rotterdam with Oranjeboom. And which was later taken over by the UK's Allied Breweries.

Dutch-brewed Lager in the UK 1950 - 1963
Year	Brewer	Beer	Price per pint d	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1950	Amstel	Lager		1033.6	1008.1	3.31	75.89%	15.5
1957	Amstel	Lager	42	1030.8	1007.2	3.06	76.62%	9.5
1961	Amstel	Amstel Lager	36	1030.9	1006.1	3.10	80.26%	9.5
1957	Amstel	Amstel Lager		1031.9	1006.9	3.24	78.37%	12
1957	Bierbrouwerij De Wereld	Piraat Lager Beer	30	1032.8	1005.7	3.52	82.62%	9
1959	Bierbrouwerij De Wereld	Piraat King Size Ale	27.5	1031.1	1005.6	3.31	81.99%	10
1950	Breda	Lager (light)		1036.9	1007.8	3.78	78.86%	13.5
1961	Heineken	Lager  Beer	36	1030.6	1006.3	3.04	79.41%	4.5
1963	Heineken	Lager	40	1030	1008.4	2.70	72.00%	6
1957	Heineken	Lager	42	1038.7	1009	3.86	76.74%	5
1961	Oranjeboom	Dutch Pilsner	36	1031.1	1006.9	3.02	77.81%	9.5
1963	Oranjeboom	Pilsner Lager	42	1031.6	1005.9	3.21	81.33%	7.5
1957	Oranjeboom	Dutch Lager		1035.4	1007.5	3.62	78.81%	10
1957	Oranjeboom	Dutch Pilsener	42	1033.3	1007.8	3.31	76.58%	9
1947	Z.H.B.	Z.H.B. Lager	30	1032.4	1008.2	3.14	74.07%	11.5
1950	Z.H.B.	Lager		1033.7	1008.4	3.28	75.07%	12
1957	Z.H.B.	Export Pilsner Lager		1032.3	1005.8	3.44	82.04%	13
1957	Z.H.B.	Export Pilsner Lager	42	1031.6	1006.2	3.30	80.38%	10
1961	Z.H.B.	Export Pilsner Lager	37	1032	1005.9	3.26	81.56%	8
	Average		37.1	1032.7	1007.0	3.3	78.44%	9.6
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.