Berliner Weisse in the UK

Just for a change, here’s stuff about Berliner Weisse, o Berlin White Beer as it’s so sweetly  called in English.

This is a fun one, especially as it makes mention of the flavour:

“MORE FROTH THAN BEER.
Berlin white beer, one beverages grouped for Customs purposes, is remarkable for its frothiness. In Germany it is served huge glasses in the shape of a  champagne glass, but almost ten times the size. In fact, the rim of a Berliner bier glass will eclipse any ordinary face. The beer, which has a deep froth when poured out, has a peculiar tartness, not exactly acid like lemonade, but more the tomato. White beer most popular in summer time, though it is drunk, of course, all the year round.”
Yorkshire Evening Post - Thursday 13 May 1909, page 4.

Sour more like a tomato than lemonade. What on earth does that mean?  The did serve it in enormous glasses before WW I. Literally bigger than your head. Almost the size of a fish tank.

This is what they mean by grouped for customs purposes:

“Under the Customs Act of 1881 the duty payable on every 36 gallons of mum, spruce, or black beer is £1 6s., where the worts were before fermentation of a specific gravity not exceeding 1,215 degrees, and £1 10s. 6d. where the specific gravity exceeded 1,215 degrees. To remove some doubts on the subject, this enactment is now extended to Berlin white beer and other preparations, whether fermented not fermented, of a character similar to mum, spruce, or black beer.”
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Tuesday 16 August 1887, page 6.

I’m scratching my head as to why Berliner Weisse was lumped together with Mumme. That’s a stretch even for a Horst Dornbusch. They’re about as dissimilar as you can imagine. Mumme black, treacly and incredibly sweet, Berliner Weisse light, dry and sour. You can see by the gravity mentioned that the rules were really aimed at Mumme.

That’s a very high rate of duty – the tax on a standard barrel of domestically brewed beer was 6s 3d. 312d compared to 75d. Though if you take the gravity into account it’s not so crazy. On a beer with an OG of 1210 that works out to 81.7d per standard barrel. But for a low-gravity beer like Berliner Weisse, the tax is crazily high. Assuming a gravity of 1036º, that works out to 476.7d per standard barrel.

Did anyone really import it into Britain? It would have been enormously expensive. That’s more than 1d per pint tax, at a time when Mild only cost 2d per pint. The tax on a standard-strength Mild of 1055º was just a farthing (0.25d).

It was still being taxed at a ludicrously high rate between the wars:

“DUTIES ON BEER.

Customs—
	Existing Duties.	Proposed Duties.
	£ s. d.	£ s. d.
Mum, spruce, black beer or Berlin white beer, of specific gravity (subject to the existing rebate £5 per 36 gallons not exceeding 1,215 degrees per 36 gallons	20 2 0	20 14 0
Exceeding 1,215deg. per 36 gallons	23 11 0	24 5 0
Other sorts of specific gravity of 1,055deg. per gallons (and proportion for any difference in gravity. Subject to the existing additional duty of 10d. per 36 gallons 1,055deg. consequential on the hop duty and to the existing rebate of £1 per bulk barrel).	5 0 6	5 3 6
Excise Beer-
Beer of a specific gravity of 1,055deg. per 36 gallons (and in proportion for any difference in gravity) (subject to the existing rebate per bulk barrel).	5 0 0	5 3 0

It is proposed that the increase in beer duty shall take effect from April 15.”
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Tuesday 15 April 1930, page 14.

I wonder when these provisions ended? My bet is after WW II.

Still lots more about Berliner Weisse to come.

Dantzig Black Beer imports

Nothing very fancy today. Just a random bunch of references to that old favourite, Dantzig Black Beer.

Frankly, I'm confused. On the one hand, I'm surprised by how many mentions of it I've found in newspapers. On the other, given how regularly and widely it was imported, it's odd how little reference there is to it actually being consumed. Mostly it's just announcements of it arriving in port.

Several northern ports received shipments of Dantzig Black Beer. There was Hull:

HULL, DECEMBER 22.
For HAMBURG, The FAME, ALEXANDER GRANT, Master (A constant Trader.) To sail with convoy the 24th inst.
BLAYDES, LOFT, GEE, & Co.
ON SALE,
A quantity of Podolia FLAX-
26 Casks of RAPE OIL
HORSE HIDES (dryed)
Ermland YARN from 12 a 25
Dantzig BLACK BEER (One property.)
22d Dec. 1800.
Hull Packet - Tuesday 23 December 1800, page 3.

For SALE, REAL SPRUCE BEER, just arrived from Dantzic direct.
TOMLINSON & BOOTH.
HULL, October Ist, 1814.
Hull Packet - Tuesday 04 October 1814, page 2.

Liverpool:

VIN DE BOURGOUGNE.
Very superior BURGUNDY WINE, in Bottles, Selected with great care, and bottled in France for Private Tables. A few Cases only being left, will be disposed Of on reasonable terms.
Also, Dantzig BLACK BEER, in Kegs and Half-kegs.
Apply to B. H. DOWNING, 40, Chapel-walks, POOl-lane.
Liverpool Mercury - Friday 15 December 1826, page 4.

And Newcastle:

DANTZIG BLACK BEER.
ON SALE, Part of a Cargo, recently landed from the Elise, 10s. 6d. per Keg,
BY GEO. FINLAY,
WINE MERCHANT, BIGG-MARKET.
Newcastle. 9th Jan. 1846.
Newcastle Journal - Saturday 10 January 1846, page 2.

ALLSOPP'SPALE AND BURTON ALES.
The above ales are now being supplied in the finest condition in bottles and casks.
Also, just landed, PRIME DANTZIG BLACK BEER, in kegs.
By GILPIN AND COMPANY, 107, Pilgrim-street, and 7, Manors.
Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury - Saturday 02 February 1867, page 1.

Note the mention in several of the above of "kegs". The term was usually used to refer to small barrels rather than the type of barrel in which beer was delivered.This confirms the small size of the barrels used to export Dantzig Black Beer:

"Danzig. The demand for Jopenbier was very limited, as in the English manufacturing districts, the main sales locations for this article, most workers were unemployed because of the American war. The sale price was 70 fr. per 1/4 T. free on board. Manufactured were 22300, exported 24300 1/4-T. Value of 56700 Th; of the shipped amount a great part was sent to England on credit and stored there unsold. The stock at year-end was 8000 1/4-T."
"Preussische Statistik" 1863, page 101.

1/4 T I assume means a quarter Prussian tonne. That had a capacity of 114.503 litres, or a little over 25 gallons, making a quarter tonne about 6.25 gallons, or a little smaller than  between a pin and a firkin. The total volume of those 1862 exports to Britain were 4,250 barrels. Not a huge amount. Then again, in 1860 only 3,592* barrels of beer were imported into Britain. Though, as Black Beer had a special status, I'm not sure if it was included in those statistics. It still means that Black Beer was the most popular foreign beer.

And finally . . . a medicinal use for Black Beer:

Infallible Cure for Colds.—Two tablespoonfuls of Dantzig black beer, taken with hot water, sugar, and about half-a glass of old rum, or malt whiskey, immediately before going to bed, is said to cure the most obstinate and long-standing colds, and has succeeded where every other remedy failed.
Bucks Herald - Saturday 07 January 1843, page 7.

There may be more, depending on how my searches with variations in the spelling work out.


* Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 115

Dantzig Black Beer

I'm surprised at how many references to Dantzig Black Beer I've unearthed.

This is the earliest:

"There are also many good beers in Prussia, particularly Danziger beer, which, in its amiability, passion and strength can, not unjustly, be compared with a wine; since one ounce of Danziger Doppelbier is stronger and more powerful than two mass of any other common barley beer."
"Der Vollkommene Bierbrauer oder kurzer Unterricht all Arten Bier zu brauen" 1784 (Reprint Verlag Leipzig, ISBN 3-8262-0201-5), page 131.

Thick and treacly. Well you'd expect that from a beer with an OG of 1198.

"Dantzig was associated with a variety of products that were either produced in the district, or were exported thence. One, not found in the Dictionary Archive, is Dantzig BEER, otherwise known as BLACK beer, which Ogilvie described as 'a kind of beer manufactured at Dantzic. It is of black colour, and of a syrupy consistence, and is much prized' [Ogilvie (1865)]."
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=58737

Yes, it really was black and treacly.

"Black Beer or Dantzig Beer is a very dark, syrupy brew first made in Dantzig."
"The Grocer's Encyclopedia" New York, 1911, page 64.

"Formerly a strong medicinal beer was made in Dantzic from the berries of the sweet-brier, which was found both salutary and agreeable; another description of liquor, called black beer, is made in that city and held in considerable estimation: it is a species of spruce beer, and is made in a manner similar to that practised in Canada."
"A Philosophical and Statistical History of the Inventions and Customs of Ancient and
Modern Nations in the Manufacture and Use of Inebriating Liquors" by Samuel Morewood, 1838, page 463.

"In England, malt liquors are, in general,'properly fermented; and when intended for warm climates, the grain is twice mashed, and twice boiled. In German ales, on the contrary, little or no fermentation is permitted to take place; and in the Dantzick black beer, in particular, only a half fermentation is allowed."
"The Code of Health and Longevity" by Sir John Sinclair, 1807, page 338.

"X porter has of late years become of nearly the same colour as Dantzic black beer, which is, perhaps, another improvement of the present day. This alteration in the colour is said to have been adopted merely to humour the public taste."
"A Practical Treatise on Brewing, Based on Chemical and Economical Principles" by William Black, 1849, page 246.

Black beer was brewed in Britain, too. Here are the rules:

"An Act to continue certain Duties of Customs and Inland Revenue for the Service of Her Majesty, and to grant, alter, and repeal certain other Duties. [3rd June, 1862.]
. . . .
9.Provided always, that brewers of beer, known as spruce or black beer, for sale, shall continue to pay for their licenses only the name rates of duty as are imposed by the act passed in the 6 Geo. 4, с. 81, on brewers of beer other than table beer only, for sale: provided that any such brewer shall not brew on the same premises beer of any other description than spruce or black beer, nor use in the brewing of the same, or add thereto, any hops or other bitter, or any yeast or other matter to produce fermentation, and shall not brew, or sell or send out, any of such beer of a less specific gravity than 1180 degrees."
"The Jurist", 1863 , Page 9.

I wonder if the address of Dantzic Cottage of theis Leeds Black Beer brewer was just a coincidence?

"Plowman John, black beer brewer, Dantzic cottage, 46 Regent st [Leeds]"
"History, gazetteer, and directory, of the west-riding of Yorkshire" by William White, 1837, page 592.

One of Black Beer's main uses appears to have been medicinal:

"Porter is recommended by the medical world to their convalescent patients in poor families, in lieu of port wine, which antidote is exclusively appropriated to the wealthy. Here we may take the liberty of suggesting, that both classes of such invalids may advantageously now avail themselves of a yet simpler, more nutritious, and less alcoholic renovator than either, merely by a temperate imbibition of a moderately attenuated fresh pale beer, of about 20 or 24 lbs. gravity, or such as is retailed at fourpence or sixpence per quart. This beer contains the essentials required by both doctor and patient, and which may be looked for in vain in either wine or porter; for besides containing water, gum, alcohol, and carbonic acid gas, in common with black beer, it possesses some glutinous matter and a fair proportion of nutrimental sugar; and its gum is rendered digestive by retaining its vigour and original elements; it is also better suited to weak stomachs and to medicinal and strengthening purposes than any black beer can be, since it contains less carbonaceous matter, and consequently more nutritious food, and is easier of digestion ; whereas porter contains such a large share of this heavy mucilaginous matter, that it is better fitted to hardy and healthy constitutions, such as workers in metal, soil, or mortar, whose exercise enables them to carry it advantageously through the physical system; and, as regards port wine, little or perhaps none that reaches this country is free from adulteration with foreign alcohol, which is added to it either at the close of the fermentation, or immediately prior to its enshipment, and is never completely incorporated with the natural juice of the grape and its native spirit, notwithstanding all the art of "fretting in," of which the exporters are masters as adroit as they are fraudulent. However desirable the tartar of grapejuice is, as a component of wine, so little of it remains after bottling, that it cannot avail as medicine; whereas the tartar or gluten of malted barley answers the desired purpose, because it exists in sufficient quantity, and partakes of the same essential properties."
"The Theory and Practice of Brewing Illustrated" by William Littell Tizard, 1846, page 509.

"She had not been under proper medical treatment. A few days before my visit she partook plentifully of a mixture of black beer and whisky, with a view to promote sweating, but this evacuation did not take place, and her symptoms were much aggravated by the dose."
"Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal" 1827, page 79.

"'I have had a bad cold,' said the merchant, 'and I got my feet bathed, and had a drink o' hot Dantzig black beer; and this rising oot o' my warm bed at this time o' nicht will he the death o' me! What do ye want?'"
"Tait's Edinburgh Magazine" 1852, page 492.

That was fun, wasn't it? What next? I've been reading some fascinating stuff about Berliner Weisse. You interested in that?