Dutch Bokbier in 1948

While in the late 1940's beer in the UK was still getting weaker, things were picking up in Holland. In 1948 there was even some full-strength Bokbier. Those jammy continental bastards.

Though not every beer in the table was really Bok-strength. Currently the Dutch Boks sold in Autumn have to be at least 16º Plato. Only four of the examples meet that criterion. Pre-war analyses have gravities ranging from 15.14º to 17.63º Plato, averaging 16.8º Plato.

The ABV of every beer is certainly below what would be expected today, where 6.5% is the norm. This set only has one over 6% ABV and one at just 4.4% ABV. The pre-war set varied between 5.51% ABV and 6.85% ABV, averaging 6.03%.

Colours are quite varied. That's the Brand scale, by the way. If my little conversion table is correct, 14.5 to 32 Brand is approximately 20 to 40 SRM. Or dark brown to near black, in layman's terms.

Almost back to pre-war Bok, but not quite. Still, was better than the situation in the UK, where average gravity was about at its nadir..

Dutch Bokbier in 1948
Brewer	Beer	OG Plato	FG Plato	ABV	App. Atten-uation	Colour
Heineken (Ams)	Bok	16.42	5.83	5.65	65.94%	22
Heineken (Rtm)	Bok	16.15	5.46	5.69	67.58%	20
Oranjeboom	Bok	16.08	5.28	5.82	68.53%	32
Drie Hoefijzers	Bok	15.73	5.00	5.69	69.53%	14.5
Grolsch	Bok	15.18	3.87	6.04	75.62%	22
Hengelo	Bok	15.81	4.61	5.95	72.10%	22
Bavaria	Bok	14.10	3.83	5.41	73.92%	19
Amstel	Bok	15.65	7.27	4.42	55.05%	15.65
Phoenix	Bok	15.23	5.04	5.39	68.21%	20
ZHB	Bok	16.05	5.97	5.47	64.25%	22
Van Vollenhoven	Bok	15.73	5.11	5.66	68.84%	19
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.