Monday 19 July 2021

Other Dutch Lagers in 1943

I'll be honest with, you won't be getting that many words from me today. It's a lovely sunny day and Have an appointment with my mates Will and Lucas in Butcher's Tears in an hour. No time for any fancy word-spinning.  Looking forward to a few pints, though.

I feel very comfortable at Butcher's Tears as they have lots of space outside. No rubbing shoulders with the next table. The beer's not bad, either. They quite often have a Mild, too. Only a 15-minute walk away. Perfect, really.

On with the post. Lots of tables stuck together by the occasional sentence. Relating to lagers brewed towards the end of the war.

If you thought the Pils set looked as watery as hell, wait until you see this lot. None manage to crawl much over 1% ABV. Yeah, party time! The slightly below average degree of attenuation doesn’t help the alcoholic qualities, but I suppose helped to leave them with at least a little body.

Dutch Licht Lagerbier in 1943
Date Brewer Town OG Plato FG Plato ABV App. Atten-uation Colour
25th Jan Drie Hoefijzers Breda 2.87 0.77 1.05 73.40% 0.58
26th Jan Bavaria Lieshout 3.02 1.05 0.98 65.51% 0.48
26th Jan Amstel Amsterdam 2.62 0.66 1.01 75.01% 2.8
26th Jan Heineken Rotterdam 2.85 0.71 1.08 75.30% 0.26
26th Jan Kruis van Bourgondie   2.94 0.86 1.05 71.00% 0.62
27th Jul Heineken Amsterdam 2.85 0.79 1.01 72.51% 0.32
27th Jul Heineken Rotterdam 2.88 0.93 0.98 67.96% 0.38
  Average   2.86 0.82 1.02 71.53% 0.78
Source:
Rapporten van laboratoriumonderzoeken naar producten van Heinekenbrouwerijen in binnen- en buitenland en naar producten van andere brouwerijen held at the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, document number 834 - 1794.


It’s much the same story with the dark type of Lagerbier – low gravity, weedy ABV. And an even worse degree of attenuation. And a couple of examples which are barely even dark. Why would you bother drinking stuff as dilute as this? I guess because there was no alternative.

Dutch Donker Lagerbier in 1943
Date Brewer Town OG Plato FG Plato ABV App. Atten-uation Colour
25th Jan Grolsch Groenlo 8.22 1.74 3.33 79.38% 12.5
25th Jan Van Vollenhoven Amsterdam 3.06 1.07 1.01 65.31% 10.8
26th Jan Bavaria Lieshout 3.44 1.24 1.11 64.27% 5.8
26th Jan Kruis van Bourgondie   3.21 1.10 1.08 66.03% 14.5
26th Jan Heineken Rotterdam 2.96 1.01 0.98 66.15% 6.2
27th Jul Heineken Amsterdam 2.87 0.91 0.98 68.54% 4.8
27th Jul Heineken Rotterdam 3.04 1.39 0.78 54.58% 8.5
  Average   3.83 1.21 1.32 66.32% 9.01
Source:
Rapporten van laboratoriumonderzoeken naar producten van Heinekenbrouwerijen in binnen- en buitenland en naar producten van andere brouwerijen held at the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, document number 834 - 1794.


Another weird outlier in the set, this time from Grolsch. Some lucky devils got to drink a beer that was actually intoxicating. Heady stuff.

Weirdly Holland’s wateriest beer style, Oud Bruin, averaged out stronger than Licht Lagerbier.

Dutch Oud Bruin in 1943
Date Brewer Town OG Plato FG Plato ABV App. Atten-uation Colour
25th Jan Van Vollenhoven Amsterdam 3.70 1.20 1.30 67.90% 25
26th Jan St. Servatius Maastricht 2.84 0.62 1.15 78.37% 7
26th Jan Gulpener Gulpen 3.19 0.87 1.19 72.98% 12.2
26th Jan Het Hert Corurau? 3.00 1.07 0.89 64.61% 11.5
  Average   3.18 0.94 1.13 70.96% 13.93
Source:
Rapporten van laboratoriumonderzoeken naar producten van Heinekenbrouwerijen in binnen- en buitenland en naar producten van andere brouwerijen held at the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, document number 834 - 1794.


Surprised to see Gerste still being brewed at such a late date. Heineken had dropped theirs a couple of decades earlier.

Dutch Gerste in 1943
Date Brewer Town OG Plato FG Plato ABV App. Atten-uation Colour
26th Jan Phoenix Amersfoort 2.91 1.19 0.87 59.39% 0.8
26th Jan ZHB Den Haag 3.13 1.65 0.78 47.60% 1.8
26th Jan Oranjeboom Rotterdam 3.06 0.93 1.07 69.87% 5
  Average   3.03 1.26 0.90 58.95% 2.53
Source:
Rapporten van laboratoriumonderzoeken naar producten van Heinekenbrouwerijen in binnen- en buitenland en naar producten van andere brouwerijen held at the Amsterdamse Stadsarchief, document number 834 - 1794.


Overall, the effect of shortages was to concertina all the different styles together, leaving very little difference between them in terms of strength.

Wasn't that both fun and informative? Not really. Well, not both.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Those gravities are amazingly low. When the US was in the thrall of Southern Baptists and Methodists during the worst of Prohibition, 0.50% ABV beer was still legal. That wasn't meaningfully worse than the 0.78% stuff described here.