Thursday, 16 July 2026

Lager Beers in 1909

An Anheuser-Busch Muenchener label with an eagle and a large letter A.
You probably realise by now how fascinated I am by Lager. Especially oldie-timey Lager.

The following passage from the Journal of the Institute of Brewing explains the different types of Lager at the start of the 20th century. It breaks them down by region and strength. Rather surprisingly, along with Bohemia, Bavaria and Vienna, the USA is also included. Which is probably fair enough, now I think about it.

The strength types are a bit odd, as it doesn't seem to include Bock. Or, at least, to lump it in with Export.

Our attention must now be directed to the principal subject of this evening's paper: Lager Beers ("Lager Biere"). Of these there are four recognised types :—Bohemian, Vienna, Bavarian, and American. As a general rule, three varieties of each are brewed: Light, Ordinary or Summer Lager, and Export. The exports are all brewed considerably stronger and contain more alcohol. All the types vary a good deal in colour, flavour, palate-fulness, amount of hops, acidity and alcohol. For example :—

1. Bavarian and Munich beers possess a light to dark-brown shade of colour, are lightly hopped, and are characterised by their palate fulness, sweet taste and malt flavour. Their gravities vary from 12.5° to 15.0° B. in the Light, and from 15.0° to 18.0° B. in the Export beers.

2. The Bohemian are light-yellow, as in the case of the Pilsener, to a peculiar greenish-yellow colour. They taste somewhat sharp, dry and wine-like, but with a prevailing bitter of hops as opposed to the lightly-hopped Bavarians. Their gravities vary from 10.5° to 11.5° B. for the Light, and from 11.0° to 12.8° B. for the Heavy.

3. The Vienna Lagers come somewhere midway between the Bavarian and Bohemian, especially as regards colour, hops, and taste. The gravities vary from 10.5° to 13.5° B. in the Light, and from 13.5° to 15.5° B. for the Heavy and Export beers. The larger amount of the common beer of Vienna is brewed at a gravity of 13.5° B.

4. The American Lagers generally follow the German rather than the Austrian types, yet differ considerably in the many American cities.
"Lager Beers" by James Grant in Journal of the Institute of Brewing Volume 15, Issue 3, May 1909, page 379.

It's odd that they state American beers were mostly of the German type. Surely most were of the Bohemian type, generally being very pale. There aren't any details with regard to strength, unfortunately. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's my understanding most American lagers are of Bavarian origin or inspiration due to the large wave of German immigration in ~1820 on to major East coast, Midwest, Northern/Great Lakes, and Southern states. Milwaukee and St Louis of course come to mind. The ingredients vary due to local availability and economics, and the actual taste of the beer diverged quite quickly due to local preferences on bitterness, flavor, malt and adjunct profile, but the brewing traditions and the local cultures in the mid-1800s were predominantly German in those places, as opposed to Bohemian. I believe Anheuser-Busch had a tradition of sending brewers for education back to Bavaria; I would be surprised if that wasn't very common for other large brewers of the time as well.