Ny Carlsberg's 1905 brewing records

I spent a few hours today trawling through Carlsberg records. From the late 19th- and early 20th-century. As research for my book "Free!", which I like to keep working on.

The earlier ones aren't too bad. As the format is based on William Younger's records. The first book literally is a William Younger's one, from his time as an apprentice in Scotland. The handwriting can be a bit crap and the malts somewhat unclear. I can make enough sense of them to be able to create recipes.

The last book in the old format ends in 1906. From then on, the records look completely different. Starting in May 1905. Meaning the two formats overlap. There's a distinct difference in emphasis between the two record types.

old format, 1932

new format 1905

The older ones, despite their being a column for it, didn't have mashing details. Whereas the new ones have quite a lot of detail about both mashing and boiling. Though not the quantities of all of the ingredients and, most importantly of all, there's no gravity.

These are wort production records. With no mention of anything after the boil. Not even the volume of wort. Which means that records with the information in the old format must have continued to exist.

Just had a quick check. I've a 1930s book which is old format. I hadn't looked at these for a while. Fuck. I missed a whole load of records.

It looks like it could be a cataloguing problem. The two types are both described as "bryghusjournaler" "brew house journals". Even though they're totally different in size and shape. The old are landscape, the new portrait.

In case you're wondering, the catalogue numbers are consecutive:

old 1901-1906 
old 1881-1887
new 1905

Not sure why 1881 to 1887 was out of chronological sequence.

I doubt the more useful format records have been lost. Carlsberg don't throw stuff away. They'll just be catalogued as something else. I wonder if the catalogue is online?

It makes me want to visit Copenhagen again. Who was my contact at the archive? It's such a long time ago. (2015, according to the time stamps of the photos.)