Heineken (Rotterdam) beers in 1940

Let’s take a look at Heineken’s beers just before they started watering them down.

This exact set of beers, other than the Bok, were only brewed for around a week. After that, they were all watered down to a much lower effective gravity. Here we can see Pils and Beiersch being brewed at a lightly lower gravity and ABV, while the two Lagerbiers remain essentially unchanged. Though we will see a difference once we get onto the recipes.

Attenuation remains around 75% apparent for the whole range. Little else has changed, either. The hopping rates are the same as in 1939, other than for the Bok. Could that be because it was destined for Germany? (This is the beer with the note “for Münch.”) The colours are all much the same, too.  

Heineken (Rotterdam) beers in 1940
Date	Beer	Style	OG Plato	FG Plato	ABV	App. Atten-uation	kg hops/ 100 kg	hops kg/hl	colour
14th Nov	Do	Donker Lagerbier	8.90	2.30	3.50	74.83%	1.10	0.13	14
8th Nov	Li	Licht Lagerbier	9.05	2.45	3.50	73.64%	1.40	0.16	5
8th Nov	P	Pils	11.50	3.11	4.50	73.85%	1.33	0.20	6
8th Nov	Bei	Münchener	12.00	3.08	4.80	75.23%	0.98	0.16	15
10th Jul	Bok	Bok	17.20	4.51	7.00	75.06%	1.00	0.24	15
Source:
Heineken brewing record held at the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, document number 834 - 1759.