Sunday 10 July 2022

1960 DDR beer ingredients

As promised, the ingredients used in those wacky DDR styles.

You'd imagined it more exciting, I'm guessing. It really does just list malt and hops. There's nothing specific at all. Just the total quantities of malt and hops.

Obviously, the stronger styles like Bock and Porter needed more malt than Hell. The hopping rate is more useful. Quite a lot more in the Porter than any of the other types.

I've calculated the hop rate per 100 kg of malt. It takes the strength of the beer out of the equation, allowing a true comparison of the hopping rates. The size of Porter's victory over Deutsches Porter is much reduced by this measurement.

1960 DDR beer ingredients per hl
Category Type kg malt per hl Hops gm per hl kg hops/100 kg malt
      min max min max
Einfachbier Jung- und Braunbier 4.5 40 60 0.89 1.33
  Dunkel 9 100 120 1.11 1.33
  Malzbier 9 40 70 0.44 0.78
  Hell 9 120 150 1.33 1.67
Schankbier Weissbier 14.5 80 100 0.55 0.69
Vollbier Hell 17 180 240 1.06 1.41
  Dunkel 17 150 210 0.88 1.24
  Doppel-Caramelmalzbier 10.5 40 80 0.38 0.76
  Malznahrbier 18 40 80 0.22 0.44
  Kostritzer Schwarzbier 19 230 250 1.21 1.32
  Deutsches Pilsner 20 250 350 1.25 1.75
Starkbier Weisser Bock or Bockbier Hell 26 180 220 0.69 0.85
  Dunkler Bock or Bockbier Dunkel 26 150 200 0.58 0.77
  Deutsches Porter 32 500 650 1.56 2.03
Source:
1960 TGL7764 page 2.

But, the fun isn't quite over. Because there are a few other ingredients. One of which is a bit of a shock.

Rather surprisingly, sugar was only allowed in one type of beer: Doppel-Caramel. Though caramel for colour was to be found in many different styles. 

1960 DDR other beer ingredients
Type sugar kg/ hl max caramel max artificial sweetener  450-times sweetness g/hl max table salt g/hl max
Junng- und Braunbier - 0.2 8 -
Einfachbier Dunkel - 0.2 - -
Malzbier - 0.2 8 -
Doppel-Caramel-malzbier 6 0.2 - -
Malznahrbier - 0.2 - -
Deutsches Porter - 0.2 - 100
Source:
1960 TGL7764 page 3.

 Quire surprised to see salt in there. But only in Porter. And artificial sweetener. Though that was allowed for certain types of beer in West Germany, too. Still is, for that matter.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I hadn't known that artificial sweeteners were allowed until now, so I searched and found this post:

http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2020/06/artificially-sweetened-einfachbier.html

Interesting stuff. The more I learn about beer the less I think I understand.