Berliner Weisse in the 1880s and 1890s

The internet is wonderful for research. Sometimes you come across wonderful information in the oddest of places. Like the stuff that follows.

I found it in a book about the architecture of Berlin. There's a section on breweries which has some dead useful information. For me, at least.

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, around two thirds of Berlin’s breweries were top fermenting, but they only produced one third of the beer. The table below lists all top-fermenting breweries which did not all necessarily brew Weissbier.

Intriguing that more new top-fermenting breweries were arriving than bottom-fermenting ones: 27 compared to 8. Though that’s probably due to Lager breweries operating on a larger scale and requiring more capital to set up.

It’s hard to see any trends in the production figures.

Remember that there were several other top-fermenting styles in Berlin: Braunbier, Porter, Bitterbier. The quantity of Weissbier brewed was lower than the number in the table, which is for all types of top-fermented beer.

There’s no discernible shift from top to bottom fermenting that I can see. The proportion is always around one third to two thirds. Though it’s clear that the bottom-fermenting breweries were on a larger scale.

The difference in scale only became larger over time.

The average output of a top-fermenting brewery remained rooted at 20,000 hl. While that of bottom-fermenting breweries increased by more than 50%.

Number of Berlin breweries 1872 - 1894
Year	Bottom fermenting		Top fermenting		Total
1872	21	43.75%	27	56.25%	48
1888/89	26	36.62%	45	63.38%	71
1889/90	26	34.67%	49	65.33%	75
1890/91	27	36.00%	48	64.00%	75
1891/92	27	35.53%	49	64.47%	76
1892/93	29	38.16%	47	61.84%	76
1893/94	29	34.94%	54	65.06%	83
Source:
Berlin und seine Bauten, Architecten-Verein zu Berlin, Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Berlin, 1896, page 648.

 

Output of Berlin breweries 1872 - 1894
Year	Bottom fermenting		Top fermenting		Total
1872	898,049	62.89%	530,000	37.11%	1,428,049
1888/89	1,858,530	64.21%	1,036,058	35.79%	2,894,588
1889/90	1,891,693	63.95%	1,066,378	36.05%	2,958,071
1890/91	1,939,023	64.66%	1,060,001	35.34%	2,999,024
1891/92	1,936,987	67.62%	927,678	32.38%	2,864,665
1892/93	2,116,979	67.95%	998,661	32.05%	3,115,640
1893/94	1,988,179	63.87%	1,124,491	36.13%	3,112,670
Source:
Berlin und seine Bauten, Architecten-Verein zu Berlin, Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Berlin, 1896, page 648.

 

Average output of Berlin breweries 1872 - 1894
Year	Bottom fermenting	Top fermenting
1872	42,764	19,630
1888/89	71,482	23,024
1889/90	72,757	21,763
1890/91	71,816	22,083
1891/92	71,740	18,932
1892/93	72,999	21,248
1893/94	68,558	20,824
Source:
Berlin und seine Bauten, Architecten-Verein zu Berlin, Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Berlin, 1896, page 648.