The first beer festival - the participants

I didn't realise that Boak & Bailey had already written about this event. It was a few years back, so I've a good excuse for forgetting. I can't remember everything I wrote last month, let alone what someone else wrote a few years ago.

They'd found other references to the event. Including one that gave a full list of the participating breweries. It's an odd list. Of the 30 breweries, only two still exist: Donnington and Dreher (now called Schwechat). And there's an oddity straight off. I can't think of many lists that would include the largest brewery in Continental Europe and a tiny rural brewery in the West Country.

You know how much time I spend with my head stuffed up the past's arse. But I only recognised six names in the list. Meaning most couldn't have made it into the 20th century. It also  implies that they weren't very big. Dreher aside, none of the participants was particularly well-known.

There are none of the big names in British brewing: Bass, Allsopp, Whitbread, Truman, Barclay Perkins, William Younger, Charrington, Mann, Watney, Beamish & Crawford, Guinness and Tetley.

Brewery	Town	County/Country
Anton Dreher	Vienna	Austria
Franz Erich		Bavaria
W. J. Green, Phoenix Brewery	Luton	Bedfordshire
Wm. Potts, Anchor Brewery		Cambridgeshire
Magor, Davey, and Co., Redruth Brewery	Redruth	Cornwall
Nicholl and Co.	Colchester	Essex
R. J. Arkell, Donnnington Brewery	Stow-on-the-Wold	Gloucestershire
E. Bowley and Son, Cotswold Brewery	Cirencester	Gloucestershire
J. Richings, London Brewery		Guernsey
Biden and Co.	Gosport	Hampshire
J. Lush, St, George's Brewery	Portsea	Hampshire
John Steal, Pale Ale Brewery	Baldock	Hertfordshire
Henry and Co.	Newry	Ireland
Hills and Son	Deal	Kent
Beer and Co., Original Brewery	Canterbury	Kent
Gillow and Wareham, East Kent Brewery	Sandwich	Kent
Jude and Co., Kent Brewery	Wateringbury	Kent
Stacey, Isherwood, and Foster	Maidstone	Kent
J. W.Crosby, Crown Brewery	West Derby, Liverpool	Lancashire
Hornby And Co.	Liverpool	Lancashire
Monro and Co.	Warrington	Lancashire
Sidgwick and Mottram, Sun Brewery	Salford, Manchester	Lancashire
Boddington and Co., Strangeways Brewery	Manchester	Lancashire, and Burton-on-Trent
Nunnelly and Eady, The Brewery	Market Harboro'	Leicestershire
Horton and Co., Dalston Brewery	Haggerstone	Middlesex
Byles and Co., Grey's Brewery	Henley-on-Thames	Oxfordshire
T. P. Adcock and I. J. Fast	Melton Mowbray	Rutland
E. A. Green, Western Brewery	Bath	Somerset
Phillips Bros.	Burton-on-Trent	Staffordshire, and Northampton
G. S. and H Sainsbury	Devizes	Wiltshire

The geographical spread is very uneven, too. No breweries from Scotland, nor from anywhere in North other than Lancashire. Unsurprisingly given the event's location, a majority are from the South - 17 of 30. Though none are from London.

Region	No. breweries
South	2
Southeast	10
Southwest	5
Midlands	4
North	5
Channel Islands	1
Ireland	1
Foreign	2
Total	30

Dutch Lager Styles 1870 - 1960 (part two)

Early Lager styles
It’s easy to assume, looking back from the present, that Pilsener was an immediate success. It wasn’t, because, initially at least, it wasn’t the type of Lager brewed.  In the 1860’s, few Pale Lagers were brewed outside Bohemia.

The styles of Lager first brewed outside Germany were inspired by the two pioneers who revolutionised central European brewing: Dreher of Schwechat just outside Vienna and Sedlmayr of Spaten in Munich. The two undertook a long study trip in the 1830’s, mostly to Britain, at the time at the forefront of brewing technology. What they learned allowed them to modernise their breweries and, in the case of Dreher, become the largest brewery on the continent.

Their friendship also brought bottom-fermentation to Vienna. Sedlmayr provided Dreher with yeast after his attempts to brew an English-style Pale Ale in Schewchat had failed. His amber Lager was a huge hit all across Europe, even in the UK. In the 1860’s Dreher’s Lagerbier was being shipped all over the continent and rivalled Bass and Allsopp for international fame.

Which is how Heineken noticed it.  In 1869 there was an international exhibition held in the Paleis for Volksvlijt, not far from Heineken’s new brewery on the Stadhouders kade. Heineken sold beer at the exhibition, but the public were far more interested in what Dreher was selling*. Heineken took note.


Central European Lager styles
Now for a little context. Central Europe was home to many styles if Lager in the second half of the 19th century, some of which no longer exist.

In Bavaria, the styles were, in ascending order of strength:

Winterbier or Schenkbier
Sommerbier or Lagerbier
Export
Märzen
Bock
Doppelbock or Salvator

All of these beers were dark in colour.

Munich beers in 1866
Here are a few analyses of Munich beers in 1866:

Munich Beers in 1866
Brewer	Beer	Style	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation
Hofbräuhaus	Bock	Bock	1024.7	1073.7	6.36	66.49%
Salvatorbräu	Salvator	Bock	1033.3	1076.9	5.61	56.67%
Spatenbräu	Bock	Bock	1026.8	1077.2	6.54	65.28%
Hofbräuhaus	Sommerbier	Sommerbier	1014.1	1051.5	4.85	72.62%
Löwenbräu	Winterbier	Winterbier	1017	1046.1	3.75	63.08%
Source:
"Handbuch der chemischen technologie" by Otto Dammer, Rudolf Kaiser, 1896, pages 696-697

Note the generally poor level of attenuation.

Austrian Lager styles
Austrian Lagers came in similar strength bands to those in Bavaria: Winterbier, Sommerbier ,
Export, Märzen and Bock. Though the colours were quite different to in Bavaria. In Bohemia the majority of Lager were pale in colour, while in Vienna amber was the preferred colour. Though increasingly in Vienna and Austria paler types of Lager became popular towards the end of the century.

Dreher beers in the 1870's
Year	Brewer	Beer	Style	Acidity	FG	OG	Colour	ABV	App. Atten-uation
1870	Schwechat	Pilsener	Pilsener	0.17	1016.7	1051.3	6	4.48	66.33%
1870	Schwechat	??	Lager		1017.4	1055	10.5	4.87	68.36%
1870	Schwechat	Lagerbier	Lagerbier	0.13	1017.6	1053.5	6.3	4.65	65.96%
1870	Schwechat	Märzen	Märzen	0.14	1016.9	1054.7	7.1	4.9	67.95%
1870	Schwechat	Export	Export	0.13	1017.4	1052.6	6	4.56	65.80%
1870	Schwechat	Lagerbier	Lager		1017.6	1052.6		4.53	66.54%
1876	Schwechat	Export	Export	0.13	1018.7	1052.7		4.4	63.22%
1876	Schwechat	Bock	Bock		1016.6	1068.7		7.23	74.70%
Sources:
"Theory and Practice of the Preparation of Malt and the Fabrication of Beer" Julius E. Thausing, Anton Schwartz and A.H. Bauer, Philadelphia 1882, pages 748-751
Wahl & Henius, pages 823-830

* "Korte Geschiedenis der Heineken's Bierbrouwerij Maatschappij N.V. 1873 - 1948", by H. A. Korthals, 1948, page 29.

Beer, scientifically and socially considered (part five)

We’re still looking at the muck put into beer in the 1870’s.

Not just that: we’ll also be finding out why beer was so full of crap and why the British were drunkards.

The author seems to be a big fan of Allsopp. I suspect he would have been enraged by the way Watney used returned beer in the 1950’s:

“The necessity for all this doctoring has already been touched upon, but it may well explain its cause more fully. At Allsopps’ and other large Burton breweries (and no doubt in many smaller respectable country breweries) the capital embarked in the trade is large enough to admit of the beer being perfectly fermented and freed from impurities or substances likely to cause acetification ; the beautiful system employed by Messrs. Allsopp for that purpose has been described. But many brewers really sell their beer, not at the brewery, but in their own public-houses, and they have not sufficient capital (or it may be they are too anxious to make money) to give their products sufficient time become fit for consumption. The beer is sometimes drawn off from the fermenting vats into the barrels in which it is to be sent out, with the bung holes open for the escape of superfluous yeast; as little time as possible is given for it to “fine,” and it is sent out to the public-house with orders to return any that is unconsumed when it begins to turn sour. I do not pretend to be initiated into the mysteries of “brewers’ druggists' laboratories,” nor the secrets of those who employ their fraudulent compounds ; but certain it is, that carbonate of soda is used to neutralise the acidity of the spoiled beer, and various drugs and chemicals are then added to impart to it artificial flavour and counteract the alkaline taste, until, Mr. Tate remarks, it is “difficult to imagine how any persons can be found to drink such vile stuff.” But when we remember that three-fourths of the persons who do drink it are drunk already, the mystery is solved. Not only are the lower kinds of beer thus doctored, but they are often mixed with Allsopps’, Bass's, and other fine ales, so that it is in the interest of those firms not only to suppress adulteration, but to do their best to assist in providing the humbler classes with a cheap pure beverage, which it will not pay the vendors to sophisticate. So far, repressive legislation has been a dead letter; we hear now and then of the Act of Victoria 23 and 24 c. 84, being put in force to prevent the sale of grossly adulterated food, or tea; but although brewers will tell us that the Excise would punish adulteration severely, I do not recollect ever having noticed a prosecution. Public analysts may be appointed under this Act and it is to hoped that the time is not far distant when this course will be adopted, and the doctoring of what is really the staple beverage of our people may be reduced to a minimum, if not entirely prevented.”
Liverpool Daily Post - Tuesday 05 July 1870, page 6.

Sounds like breweries were sending out beer without properly cleansing it. Did that really go on? And if it did, how common was it? The author implies breweries like Allsopp were the exception rather than the rule. Though what I’ve seen in London brewing records tells me the large brewers in the capital were finishing their fermentations properly.

Taking back beer that was going off, then doctoring up for sale again – isn’t that exactly what Watney did with all the returns they used in their bottled beer? Seems like they were continuing a long and ignoble tradition.

That’s a great explanation of why people would drink vile doctored beer: they were already drunk. Does that mean that they started off on decent beer and switched to crap after a gallon or so?

I’ve seen details of prosecutions for adulteration from earlier in the century, so prosecutions did occur. Though admittedly the prosecutions were motivated by the excise worrying about brewers and publicans dodging tax rather than poisoning their customers. I believe public analysts were eventually appointed who working wonders in cleaning up food in the last couple of decades of the 19th century.

There’s a very simple explanation for why the British were pissheads: their beer was stronger than elsewhere:

“But we have another question consider in connection with the effects of beer upon our population, and that is its real or reputed strength. For this purpose I have compiled the following table, partly from the Dictionary articles referred to, and partly from analyses made for me by chemical friends ;

	percentage of
Name of Beer	Alcohol.	Malt Extract	Carbonic Acid.	Water.
Strong Scotch Ale	8.5	10.9	0.15	80.45
Burton Ale	5.9	14.5	..	79.6
Barclay's London Porter	5.4	6	0.16	88.44
Dreher’s Vienna Beer***	4.62	..	..	..
Low Brussels Beer (Faro)	4.9	2.9	0.2	92.9
Bavarian Draught Beer	3.8	5.8	0.14	90.26
Sweet Bohemian Beer (Prague)	3.9	10.9	..	85.2
Liverpool Doctored Beer (Mr. Tate’s test)	2.2	..	..	..
Berlin White Beer	1.9	5.7	0.6	91.8
Sweet Brunswick Beer (Mum)	1.9	45	..	53.1

A glance this table and moment's reflection will show why English beer-drinkers are often drunkards, whilst Germans, who indulge in a similar beverage to the same extent, are comparatively sober. It may be safely said that the percentage of alcohol in German beer is on the average half as great as in the English, so that where an Englishman drinks a pint, a German may partake of a quart; but when we look at the character of the beer drunk by the intemperate classes in England, and compare it with that of the poorer people abroad, we may unhesitatingly assert that less injury would arise from drinking half a-gallon of German beer than from a pint of English ale. And again, when we compare the Berlin “Weissbier,” which contains 1.9 per cent. of alcohol, with the lowest Liverpool beer, which Mr. Tate found to contain only 2.2 per cent., and consider that whilst the Prussian artisan may imbibe his beverage all day long from quart tankards with impunity, an English labourer will succumb to a few glasses of the public-house trash ; what other inference can be drawn than that it is not the beer but the drugs it contains which affect the brain? I have been told that English labourers will not take kindly to German beer; it is not strong enough for them. This is quite true of the present generation ; how should it be otherwise, when their taste has been corrupted by cocculus indicus, tobacco, and salt? But unless the advocates of temperance strenuously support the introduction of mild, pure, cheap drink (for the Englishman not alone buys bad beer, but pays three or four, aye some cases five or six times as much for it as the German does for his unadulterated beverage), unless, I say, vigorous effort is made to change the taste of the next generation as it grows up, the same difficulty will still remain to be overcome by posterity.
*** For this test I am indebted, through the kindness of Dr. Frankland, to Mr. W. Valentin, of the Royal College of Chemistry. ”
Liverpool Daily Post - Tuesday 05 July 1870, page 6.

My big question is this: is that ABW or ABV? From the Continental beers I’d guess ABW. But I have Barclay Perkins brewing records from the late 1860’s and they show their Porter as being around 5.4% ABV. What the author forgets to mention is that the Weissbier drinker of Berlin may well have been knocking back spirits along with his beer.

But the main point is certainly true: British beer was on average a good bit stronger than that brewed elsewhere.

The author’s answer to Britain’s drunkenness? Drink Mild! (Sort of.)

“Couple this experience with the fact that the Germans drink certainly as much, if not more beer than we do, and are sober, whilst we are, perhaps, the most drunken nation on the earth, and I conceive no one will dispute the proposition so often advanced by me, that claret and light Continental wines are slowly reforming our middle classes, so will it be necessary to introduce mild, pure beer as staple drink, in order to attain the same end amongst the labouring population. Until that is done, I am convinced that not all the efforts of temperance advocates (whose self-denial every one must admire and respect), neither lectures, tea-meetings, denunciation, nor repressive legislation, will avail anything beyond saving here and there a drowning wretch from the flood poisoned liquor with which our large towns are deluged ; but such change as I have suggested being accomplished, I believe that, with the spread of education, and the introduction of more rational amusements than those now offered to the humbler classes, repressive legislation will be no longer needed ; the ranks of our criminals, paupers, and lunatics will be thinned, and is to be hoped the foulest blot will in time be removed from our national escutcheon.”
Liverpool Daily Post - Tuesday 05 July 1870, page 6.

Rational amusements. What would they be? Footie? Criminals, paupers, and lunatics – which of those groups is the most aspirational, do you think? I’d go for criminal, I reckon. Lunacy and poverty don’t look that attractive.

And with that we’re finally done. Now there’s a relief.

American beer styles of the 1930’s – Vienna Type Beer

Continuing our leisurely stroll through the beer styles of the 1930’s, we’ve arrived at one of the early Lager favourites.

The Vienna style of Lager was very much the creation of one man, bottom-fermenting pioneer Anton Dreher. His brewery in Klein Schwechat just outside Vienna soon became the largest in Continental Europe on the back of the success of his amber Lager, which was to be found in every capital in Europe.

But when Dreher died a relatively young man, Vienna Lager’s star began to dim as newer, paler styles took over. Which is why the first sentence of this quote surprises me:

“Vienna Type Beer
This type of beer has gained considerable popularity in America since the repeal of Prohibition. It contains approximately 3.8% alcohol when correctly brewed and can be produced with all malt of the same variety as used in brewing Pilsen beer; that is, one that has been dried at low temperatures, thus containing very little caramel. The boiling period should be shorter than that used in brewing the Muenchener type but longer than that used in brewing the Pilsener type. This beer can be satisfactorily produced from worts of 13% original extract. The hops employed should be approximately .65 pounds per barrel if the wort can be removed from the hops in less than one-half hour's time.”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, pages 171 - 172.

I would have expected the exact opposite: that Vienna Lager’s popularity was fading and the style shuffling towards extinction. That’s what you get for making assumptions: you  end up looking an idiot.

The hopping rate is exactly half way between Mild and Strong Pilsner, and is pretty light. A British beer of that strength would have had more than a pound a barrel. And the hopping rate was lower than pre-Prohibition. As you can see from this table:

Hopping rate for Vienna Lager
OG Balling	kg/hl	lbs/US barrel
12.5	0.36	0.93
13.5	0.4	1.03
Source:
"American Handy Book of the Brewing, Malting and Auxiliary Trades" by Robert Wahl and Max Henius, 1902, page 783.

I make that around 50% more hops in the older iteration.

How exactly do you brew an amber beer using all pilsner malt? Unless you’re using some sort of sugar or caramel to get the desired colour. Then again, you could totally cheat:

“The preferred method for producing beer having the characteristics of the Vienna type is to properly brew the mild Pilsener type and also the strong Muenchener type and then after storage these two beers are mixed in approximately equal proportions giving a resulting beer having characteristics midway between the mild Pilsener and the strong Munich beers. (See analysis on Vienna Type Beer.)”
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, page 172.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this was more common than brewing Vienna as its own beer. Just makes life so much simpler.

Now here‘s a real-life Vienna Lager analysed:

VIENNA BEER
Reported by "Wahl Institute, April 21, 1936
This beer is composed of the following substances, reported in percentages or pounds per hundred:
Alcohol (by weight)	3.74
Real extract (dry substance)	5.2
Carbonic acid	0.59
Water	90.47
	100
The real extract (5.2) is made up of the following substances:
	In Percentage	In Percentage
	of the beer of	the extract
Acid (lactic)	0.117	2.25
Acid salts	0.117	2.25
Protein	0.503	9.67
Ash	0.15	2.89
Sugar (reducing)	1.276	24.54
Dextrins	3.037	58.4
	5.2	100
The following are important brewing figures:
Specific gravity of beer	1.015
Original balling of wort	12.68
Apparent extract of beer (balling)	3.75
Real attenuation.	7.48
Fermentable sugar in the wort	8.76
Apparent attenuation	8.93
Alcohol (by volume)	4.68
Percent of extract fermented	59
Percent of extract unfermented	41
Percent of sugars in original wort	69.1
Percent of non-sugars in original wort	30.9
pH value	4.7
Total acidity	0.234
Carbonic acid by volumes	3
Amlo dextrins	none
"Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint" by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, page 177.

At just 70%, the degree of attenuation is the lowest we’ve seen so far. Note that the gravity is lower than the 13º Balling suggested by the Wahls, though the ABW is pretty much spot on.

Next time we’ll be moving on to top-fermenting styles. Bet you won’t be able to sleep until then.

European beers in 1929

Not much this time. Just a table of analyses.

It's in the Wahls' book, but they had borrowed them from someone else:

"Composition of various European beers, according to Prof. Dr. H. Luers, Munich, in "Grafe Handbuch Der Organischen Warenkunde", Volume III, 1929."

It's mostly Bavarian breweries, speiced with a few exotics from Prague and Britain:

European beers in 1929
Year	Brewer	Town	country	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	OG Plato
1929	Pschorr	Munich	Germany	Dunkles	1054.26	1019.2	4.53	64.61%	13.43
1929	Hofbrau	Munich	Germany	Dunkles	1057.58	1020.2	4.75	64.92%	14.21
1929	Weihenstephan	Freising	Germany	Dunkles	1057.16	1017.2	5.16	69.91%	14.11
1929	Spaten	Munich	Germany	Dunkles	1053.83	1021.4	4.19	60.25%	13.33
1929	Tucher	Nuernberg	Germany	Dunkles	1053.45	1017.8	4.59	66.70%	13.24
1929	Kulmbacher Sandlerbraeu	Kulmbach	Germany	Dunkles	1062.61	1015.8	6.05	74.76%	15.38
1929	Dortmunder Union	Dortmund	Germany	Export	1055.15	1012	5.55	78.24%	13.64
1929	Schultheiss brauerei	Berlin	Germany	Maerzenbler	1053.75	1012.3	5.09	77.12%	13.31
1929	Erste Pilsener Actienbrauerei	Pilsen	Czech Republic	Pilsener	1046.99	1011.6	4.56	75.32%	11.71
1929	Burgerliches Brauhaus	Pilsen	Czech Republic	Pilsener Urquell	1048.17	1013.4	4.51	72.18%	11.99
1929	Dreher	Kleinschwechat	Austria	Wiener Maerzenbier	1058.95	1016.9	5.44	71.33%	14.53
1929	Unknown	Berlin	Germany	Berliner Weissbier	1036.68	1007.1	3.84	80.64%	9.23
1929	Barclay Perkins	London	UK	Porter	1087.61	1022.9	8.40	73.86%	21.06
1929	Bass	Burton	UK	Pale Ale	1060.80	1018.8	6.28	69.08%	14.96
Source:
Beer from the Expert's Viewpoint by Arnold Spencer Wahl and Robert Wahl, 1937, page 166.

I've no idea what that Barclay Perkins beer is. Obviously some sort of Stout. But it doesn't match any they brewed in the 1920's: BBS Ex had an OG of 1079º and IBS Ex 1103º*. I suspect the analysis is really from before WW I.

The Bass Pale Ale has an OG that looks right for the export version, but the FG looks far too high. Don't quite understand that one.

Moving on to the Munich beers, they still have the high OG and poor attenuation of the 19th century.

The Kulmbcher has a surprisingly high gravity  - though didn't we just read something saying it had a bock-like OG? - and reasonable attenuation leaving quite an alcoholic beer.

The Pilseners look . . . very much like modern Pilsner Urquell in terms of OG and ABV. It seems a very unchaging beer in terms of strength. More so than any other individual beer I can think of.

Told you there wasn't much this time. That's it.





* Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/614.

The decline of Vienna Lager

I was really pleased when someone on BeerAdvocate pointed me in the direction of some Austro-Hungarian beer statistics. Something I can never get enough of.

It's confirmed something I'd suspected: that the strength of Austrian beer - in particular that of Vienna - fell towards the end of the 19th century. Confirmation not so much of the fact but of the date. You just have to look at the gravity of modern Austrian Märzen. It's in the range 11.5º to 12.5º Plato. In the 1870's, they were closer to 14º Plato*.

A word of warning: this is going to be a table-heavy post. Just how I like them. Words are very overrated. That may sound a little odd coming from someone who's always dreamed of being a writer.  (Though I am the person with not one but two books without any complete sentences other than the copyright notice.) But some things - like the trends in beer strength we're looking at today - are much easier to explain through the medium of numbers.

The 1860's had been boom time for Vienna beer, with Dreher's Schwechat brewery leading the way. Vienna Lager became all the rage after it was exposed to a wider audience at the Paris International Exhibition of 1867. For a while it became dead trendy and was the first Lager to be regularly sold in London. But the good times don't seem to have lasted that long. There was soon competition in the form of first Bavarian and then Bohemian Lager.

The Schwechat beer that introduced London to Lager was quite strong, with a gravity of 1062º, which 15.2º Balling. It sounds more like an Export than a Märzen, if you ask me. This was probably stronger than the beer usually sold in Vienna.

I was surprised to see beer production falling in Vienna after 1874. But then I looked at the figures for the whole of Austria-Hungary and noticed the same downwards trend. So I thought I'd see what percentage of the total came from Vienna. It shows that proportional less was being brewed in Vienna, falling from just under 24% to almost 21%. I wonder what the reason was? Were Viennese breweries starting to come under pressure in export markets?

Here are the figures:

Austrian beer production 1870 - 1881
Year	Austria	Vienna	% Vienna
1865	7,295,000	1,423,142	19.51%
1870	9,304,000
1871	10,028,000
1872	11,445,000
1873	12,685,000
1874	11,744,000	2,777,403	23.65%
1875	11,536,000	2,740,314	23.75%
1876	11,671,000	2,494,981	21.38%
1877	11,101,000	2,251,150	20.28%
1878	10,815,000	2,424,361	22.42%
1879	10,707,000	2,230,791	20.83%
1880	10,530,000	2,253,688	21.40%
1881	11,530,000	2,393,319	20.76%
Sources:
"Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie 1882", Dr. Ferdinand Fischer, 1883, page 871.
“Bericht über der Welt_Ausstellung zu Paris im Jahre 1867, volume 7”, 1868, page 126.
European Statistics 1750-1970 by B. R. Mitchell, 1978, page 283.

Now onto the real point of all this: looking at the change in gravity of the beer brewed in Vienna. First broken down by degree Balling in hectolitres:

Beer production of the 25 breweries in the Vienna area by degree Balling (hl)
Year	9	10	11	12	13	14	15 and 16	total
1874	800	1,402,591	67,893	106,131	808,084	231,643	86,199	2,777,403
1875	780	1,442,171	68,928	89,259	776,354	239,718	76,164	2,740,314
1876	11,090	1,413,268	35,583	86,854	725,097	127,342	53,525	2,494,981
1877	3,025	1,283,028	67,092	97,007	625,943	99,224	40,590	2,251,150
1878	150	1,451,560	147,546	35,285	496,750	100,252	47,386	2,424,361
1879	630	1,324,738	173,814	15,486	517,127	106,260	56,166	2,230,791
1880	884	1,497,766	107,628	10,066	600,588	78,326	60,290	2,253,688
1881	85	1,546,523	124,448	42,458	564,576	74,339	52,290	2,393,319
Source:
"Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie 1882", Dr. Ferdinand Fischer, 1883, page 871.

Next by percentage:

Beer production of the 25 breweries in the Vienna area by degree Balling (%)
Year	9	10	11	12	13	14	15 and 16	total
1874	0.03%	50.50%	2.44%	3.82%	29.09%	8.34%	3.10%	97.33%
1875	0.03%	52.63%	2.52%	3.26%	28.33%	8.75%	2.78%	98.29%
1876	0.44%	56.64%	1.43%	3.48%	29.06%	5.10%	2.15%	98.31%
1877	0.13%	56.99%	2.98%	4.31%	27.81%	4.41%	1.80%	98.43%
1878	0.01%	59.87%	6.09%	1.46%	20.49%	4.14%	1.95%	94.00%
1879	0.03%	59.38%	7.79%	0.69%	23.18%	4.76%	2.52%	98.36%
1880	0.04%	66.46%	4.78%	0.45%	26.65%	3.48%	2.68%	104.52%
1881	0.004%	64.62%	5.20%	1.77%	23.59%	3.11%	2.18%	100.48%
Source:
"Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie 1882", Dr. Ferdinand Fischer, 1883, page 871.

Output of 13º beer fell from 29% of the total to 23.5%. 14º beer fared even worse, declining from 8.3% to 3.1%. Surprisingly, output of 12º beer fell by more than 50%. The big winners were 10º beer, up from 50.5% to 64.6% and 11º beer, which went from 2.4% to 5.2%.

(Yes, I realise the percentages don't add up properly. The totals in the original document aren't the sum of the columns. I've just used them as is.)

Grouping the beers into 9º to 12º and 13º to 16º is even more revealing:

Vienna output in two strength groups (hl)
Year	9 to 12	13 to 16	total
1874	1,577,415	1,125,926	2,703,341
1875	1,601,138	1,092,236	2,693,374
1876	1,546,795	905,964	2,452,759
1877	1,450,152	765,757	2,215,909
1878	1,634,541	644,388	2,278,929
1879	1,514,668	679,553	2,194,221
1880	1,616,344	739,204	2,355,548
1881	1,713,514	691,205	2,404,719
Source:
"Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie 1882", Dr. Ferdinand Fischer, 1883, page 871.

Vienna output in two strength groups (%)
Year	9 to 12	13 to 16	total
1874	58.35%	41.65%	100%
1875	59.45%	40.55%	100%
1876	63.06%	36.94%	100%
1877	65.44%	34.56%	100%
1878	71.72%	28.28%	100%
1879	69.03%	30.97%	100%
1880	68.62%	31.38%	100%
1881	71.26%	28.74%	100%
Source:
"Jahresbericht über die Leistungen der chemischen Technologie 1882", Dr. Ferdinand Fischer, 1883, page 871.

The stronger beers declined from 41.7% to 28.7% of the total.

I wouldn't have been surprised at that percentage of 10º being brewed in Bohemia and Moravia, but I hadn't expected it of Vienna. You learn something every day.

There will be more tables of Autro-Hungarian statistics to follow. How appropriate for the WW I centenary.









* "Theory and Practice of the Preparation of Malt and the Fabrication of Beer" Julius E. Thausing, Anton Schwartz and A.H. Bauer, Philadelphia 1882, pages 748-751