Friday, 14 November 2025

Bottled Indonesian beer after WW II

A Heineken Javabier label featuring a drawing of the brewery with rays of light coming out of it.
Another extract from my monster gravity table. Courtesy of the Heineken gravity book. Who, with their brewery in Soerabaja, had a commercial interest in what was then the Dutch East Indies.

You'll have to excuse me for this type of post. In my current impaired state, I can't really perform at 100%. And I still need to churn out posts daily. I know, it's a rod I've created for my own back. But I just can't give it up. If I drop dead on a trip, you probably won't realise for a week as my preloaded posts continue to appear.

You can see the effect of WW II in the relatively low strength of all the beers. With all the examples under 4% ABV and the weakest under 3% ABV. While pre-war there had been 5% ABV beers.

Do I have any other interesting observations on these beers? Not really. Look at the table your fucking selves. I'm not going to do everything for you.

Batavia, in case you're wondering, was the colonial name for Jakarta.

Bottled Indonesian beer after WW II
Year Brewer Town Beer Style OG FG ABV App. Atten-uation Colour
1948 ABC Batavia Pilsener Pils 1033.2 1010.0 2.97 69.88% 0.22
1948 ABC Banging Pilsener Pils 1033.9 1009.6 3.09 71.69% 0.22
1948 Heineken Soerabaja Javabier Pils 1032.1 1005.9 3.39 81.63% 0.22
1948 Heineken Soerabaja Licht Javabier Pils 1032.0 1009.5 2.88 70.31% 0.25
1949 Heineken Soerabaja Licht Javabier Pils 1031.8 1008.0 3.09 74.95% 0.22
1950 Heineken Soerabaja Licht Javabier Pils 1032.8 1006.7 3.37 79.56% 0.28
1948 Heineken Soerabaja Licht Pilsener Pils 1034.3 1009.9 3.15 71.23% 0.35
1949 Heineken Soerabaja Licht Pilsener Pils 1036.0 1007.0 3.74 80.51% 0.24
1950 Heineken Soerabaja Licht Pilsener Pils 1036.4 1008.8 3.57 75.81% 0.28
1950 Oranje Batavia Anker Pils 1034.0 1012.8 2.76 62.30% 0.35
1950 Oranje Batavia Diamant Pils 1035.7 1011.8 2.98 67.02% 0.35
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.

 

 

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