Kulmbach area Export 1878 - 1893

I'm back with analyses from "Chemie der menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel" by Joseph König. Sorry about the delay. There's a good reason.

I've been out in the internet fields harvesting modern beer details. Lots of them. Because I want to make some comparisons between 19th-century and 21st-century Lagers. And because I enjoy collecting data. It's addictive.  I'm building up an impressive set. Which I'm sure we'll have loads of fun with in future.

There's a decent set of beers from Kulmbach and nearby Kitzingen in "Chemie der menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel". Enough to handle them separately.

I'll start with a note on colour. Some are specified as being Helles or Dunkles, but most aren't. However, it being Kulmbach, I'd assume most were dark. Kulmbacher was one of the early Lager styles which was imitated abroad (one of Heineken's early Lagers was a Kulmbacher). From what I can gather, it was darker and bitterer than Münchner.

Let's take a look at the 19th-century samples first.

Kulmbach area Export 1878 - 1893
Year	Brewer	Town	Beer	Style	OG	FG	OG Plato	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lactic acid %	CO2 %
1878	Puszta	Kulmbach	Export Hell	Helles Export	1049.9	1015.3	12.40	4.49	69.34%	0.170	0.227
1878	Gebr. Christ	Kulmbach	Export Hell	Helles Export	1050.4	1015.1	12.52	4.58	70.04%	0.180	0.232
1884	Unknown	Kulmbach	Export	Export	1052.6	1020.2	13.04	4.19	61.60%	0.120	0.130
1878	Puszta	Kulmbach	Export Dunkel	Dunkles Export	1053.2	1018.2	13.18	4.53	65.79%	0.130	0.201
1884	Aktien-Export-Brauhaus	Kulmbach	helles Export	Export Helles	1053.6	1013.3	13.27	5.24	75.19%	0.132	0.140
1879	Kulmbacher Aktien-Br.	Kulmbach	Export	Export	1054.5	1017.4	13.49	4.80	68.07%		0.198
1885	Ehemann	Kitzingen	Export	Export	1056.3	1017.0	13.91	5.10	69.80%	0.210
1878	Export-Brauhaus	Kulmbach	Export	Export	1059.0	1016.0	14.54	5.59	72.88%		0.302
1893	Aktien-Export-Brauerei	Kulmbach	Monopol-Kulmbacher	Export	1059.2	1013.1	14.59	6.01	77.87%	0.203
1884	Unknown	Kulmbach	dunkeles Export	Export Dunkles	1061.9	1024.0	15.22	4.90	61.23%	0.153
1893	Aktien-Export-Brauerei	Kulmbach	helles Exportbier	Export Helles	1062.5	1014.1	15.35	6.31	77.44%	0.150
1891	Aktien-Brauerei	Kulmbach	Export	Export	1062.7	1015.5	15.40	6.15	75.28%
1879	Export-Brauhaus	Kulmbach	Export	Export	1062.8	1019.3	15.41	5.64	69.24%	0.200
1891	Aktien-Brauerei Streitberg	Streitberg	"Löwenbier" (nach Art des Münchener Exportbieres)	Export Dunkles	1064.2	1013.5	15.75	6.63	78.97%
1879	Ehemann	Kitzingen	Export	Export	1064.4	1017.5	15.79	6.10	72.83%	0.230
1879	Sandler	Kulmbach	Export	Export	1064.9	1018.2	15.91	6.08	71.96%	0.230
1879	Rizzi	Kulmbach	Export	Export	1065.5	1013.2	16.05	6.84	79.85%	0.270
1891	Unknown	Kulmbach	dunkeles Exportbier	Export Dunkles	1065.7	1027.9	16.09	4.88	57.53%	0.137
1879	Pätz	Kulmbach	Export	Export	1067.5	1021.4	16.50	5.98	68.27%	0.260
1884	Aktien-Export-Brauhaus	Kulmbach	dunkeles Export	Export Dunkles	1067.6	1025.9	16.53	5.39	61.69%	0.180	0.189
1891	Unknown	Kulmbach	dunkeles Exportbier	Export Dunkles	1067.6	1023.0	16.53	5.78	65.98%	0.142
1891	Aktien-Brauerei	Kulmbach	Export	Export	1068.6	1026.2	16.76	5.48	61.81%
1879	Eberlein	Kulmbach	Export	Export	1070.5	1024.0	17.20	6.03	65.96%	0.280
1878	Aktien-Brauerei	Kulmbach	Export	Export	1072.9	1022.0	17.75	6.61	69.82%		0.300
1878	Unknown	Kitzingen	Export	Export	1074.4	1025.0	18.09	6.41	66.40%
1893	Aktien-Export-Brauerei	Kulmbach	dunkeles Exportbier	Export Dunkles	1076.9	1025.8	18.65	6.63	66.45%
	Average				1062.7	1019.3	15.38	5.63	69.28%	0.188	0.213
Source:
Chemie der menschlichen Nahrungs- und Genussmittel by Joseph König, 1903, pages 1102 - 1156

There'a a big spread of gravities. The weakest would only just about count as Export today. While the strongest are at Doppelbock level. Mmmm... not sure I can make any sense out of that.

Attenuation isn't as bad as it could have been. With a couple of examples even pushing 80%. The samples identified as Dunkles have a worse than average attenuation - 65.38%. Interesting, but I'm not sure how significant as I don't know how many of the others were also dark.

The lactic acid level is high again. I can't believe any modern Lager would be over 0.05% acidity. I've still not ween enough CO2 measurements to say anything sensible about them. Maybe I should start studying up on carbonation levels. What I can see is considerable variation, from 0.13% to 0.30%.

Now the modern Lagers. Again, they're from Kulmbach and environs.

Kulmbach area beers in 2014
Year	Brewer	Town	Beer	Style	OG	FG	OG Plato	ABV	App. Atten-uation	bitterness
2014	Brauerei Reblitz	Bad Staffelstein	Reblitz-Räucherl	Rauchbier	1049.1	1012.1	12.2	4.80	75.33%
2014	Arnsteiner Brauerei	Seinsheim	Landbier	Export	1049.5	1009.6	12.3	5.20	80.70%
2014	Distelhäuser	Tauberbischofsheim	Kellerbier	Kellerbier	1049.5	1010.3	12.3	5.10	79.18%	25
2014	Kulmbacher Brauerei	Kulmbach	Mönchshof Naturtrübes Kellerbier	Kellerbier	1049.9	1008.5	12.4	5.40	82.96%
2014	Privatbrauerei Kesselring	Marktsteft	Urfränkisches Landbier	Landbier	1049.9	1009.2	12.4	5.30	81.56%
2014	Göller	Zeil am Main	Dunkel	Dunkles	1050.3	1010.4	12.5	5.20	79.43%
2014	Privatbrauerei Gessner	Sonneberg	Alt-Sumbarcher Dunkel	Dunkles	1050.3	1010.4	12.5	5.20	79.33%
2014	Privatbrauerei Kesselring	Marktsteft	Urtyp Export	Export	1050.3	1009.7	12.5	5.30	80.82%
2014	Distelhäuser	Tauberbischofsheim	Landbier	Export	1050.3	1011.1	12.5	5.10	77.94%	22
2014	Distelhäuser	Tauberbischofsheim	Export	Export	1050.3	1010.4	12.5	5.20	79.33%	22-23
2014	Kulmbacher Brauerei	Kulmbach	Kulmbacher Export	Export	1050.3	1008.9	12.5	5.40	82.31%
2014	Kulmbacher Brauerei	Kulmbach	Mönchshof Landbier	Landbier	1050.3	1008.9	12.5	5.40	82.31%
2014	Brauhaus Leikeim	Altenkunstadt	Landbier	Landbier	1050.3	1008.9	12.5	5.40	82.31%
2014	Göller	Zeil am Main	Kaiser Heinrich Urstoff	Spezial	1050.3	1010.4	12.5	5.20	79.43%
2014	Kulmbacher Brauerei	Kulmbach	EKU Export	Export	1050.7	1009.4	12.6	5.40	81.57%
2014	Püls-bräu	Stadtsteinach	Weismainer 1798er Kellertrunk	Kellerbier	1051.2	1011.2	12.7	5.20	78.11%
2014	Seinsheimer Kellerbräu	Seinsheim	Kellerbier	Kellerbier Dunkel	1051.2	1013.4	12.7	4.90	73.81%
2014	Seinsheimer Kellerbräu	Seinsheim	Rauchbier	Rauchbier	1051.2	1013.4	12.7	4.90	73.81%
2014	Kulmbacher Brauerei	Kulmbach	Tradition	Dunkles	1051.6	1011.6	12.8	5.20	77.51%	24
2014	Göller	Zeil am Main	Rauchbier	Rauchbier	1053.7	1010.8	13.3	5.60	79.98%
2014	Braugasthof Grosch	Rödental	Grosch Fuhrmannstrunk	Dunkles	1054.1	1011.9	13.4	5.50	78.02%
2014	Distelhäuser	Tauberbischofsheim	Spezial	Spezial	1054.6	1013.8	13.5	5.30	74.71%	26
	Average				1050.9	1010.6	12.6	5.2	79.11%	24.3
Source:
Relevant brewery websites

You can see not many are actually called Export. There's Dunkles, Landbier, Spezial, Rauchbier and Kellerbier in there. The ones called export cover a very narrow gravity range, from 12.5 to 12.6º Plato. Basicaly I've put together a set of beers stronger than Helles or Pils, but weaker than Märzen. That's not so unreasonable, is it?

As you'd expect, the attenuation is better than in the 19th-century samples, around 10 points higher at 79%. There's not one under 70%.

There's a fair mix of different-sized breweries represented. Kulmbacher being pretty big - 2,259,000 hl in 2013* - Braugasthof Grosch pretty small - 3,000 hl in 2013**.

People take the piss out of British cask beer all being in the range 3.6% to 4.2% ABV. But German Lager isn't any better. That's mostly between 4.8% and 5.4% ABV.

More Exports to come. Obviously.





* Brauerei-Addressbuch 2014/15, page 101.
** Brauerei-Addressbuch 2014/15, page 137.

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Delirium Café Amsterdam

I told you I'd left my eye off the ball a bit here in Amsterdam. Just this week I found out about two new beery openings.

"Fancy trying out some new places this weekend, Dolores?"

"Where are they?"

"Both are pretty close to Centraal Station."

"OK then, we can go to Marks first."

Which we did. Didn't go ot the first pub, however, because that doesn't open until 5 pm. We hit town around midday, in time to get the marked down items in Marks.

You've probably heard of the Delirium Café in Brussels. It gets rather mixed reviews. The beer list is impressively ginormous, but the covernous cellar lacks atmosphere and gets packed with pissed-up students. The Amsterdam branch opened mid-September 2014. In a rather odd spot.

Look at the address in Streetview and all you'll see is a road and a tram stop. The pub is in reality directly below you. It's not that far from Centraal Station, but it's not a particularly nice walk nor that easy to find your way. Much simpler just to get tram 26 to Muziekgebouw Bimhuis. Go down the stairs and there you are.

Outside there's a huge terrace with a wonderful view of het Ij. Not the brewery, but the piece of water. You can also see the rather less wonderful - I'll be honest hideously ugly - new music theatre.

Inside is cavernous by Amsterdam standards. As we're the only customers, it seems even bigger. I suss out  the draught selection. There's no central blackboard so I have to look at each individual tap. Not all 20 are in action. Being hung upside down is a novelty. But it won't make the beer taste any better.

"Schneider Porter? I've never heard of that." Sounds a weird concept. But I give it a try. Dolores goes for standard Schneider.

My Porter is a weird mixture of banana and roast. Not sure about this one. Dolores takes a sip. "It tastes like Malzbier. That's what we used to drink as kids."

It may be the only Schneider beer I'm not keen on.

I suppose you want to know about the beer list. Like travelling back 10 years, is the simplest way to describe it. Lots of beers in the established Belgian styles, some Dutch stuff, plus a handfull of American and British beers. It looks really dated, to be honest. I wonder who their target market is. Especially stuck out in this odd corner of Amsterdam.

Dolores doubts that there are 500 bottled beers as claimed. She counts them: 310. The prices aren't too bad for 21st-century Amsterdam. Westmalle Dubbel is €3, Westmalle Tripel €4.20, Duvel €3.50, St. Bernardus Abr €5.10.

Schneider Hopfenweise is very reasonably priced, so I order one.

"I thought this sounded a bad idea - a combination of banana wheat beer and american hops. But I really like it."

"It sounds horrible."

"Try it."

"Just as horrible as I imagined, Ronald."

Some middle-aged Americans arrive, seeking lunch. It's their beer ordering that interests me. One asks for a regular light beer. Another for an IPA. That speaks volumes about what has happened in the USA.

Delirium Café
Piet Heinkade 4-6-8
1019 BR Amsterdam
Tel: 020 811 03 81
delirium@lovers.nl
http://www.deliriumcafeamsterdam.nl/

20 draught
500 bottled

Opening times:
Sun - Thur 12:00 - 01:00
Fri - Sat 12:00 - 03:00

Draught! competition winner

Just realised I forgot to announce the winner of my "Draught!" typography competition. Though you must have noticed which cover had won since I've posted the image.

Thanks for all the entries. All were better than I could manage and my lazy-arsed kids could be arsed to do. Though I can't scrub* Alexei too much as he created the cover image. Love his trademark blank faces.

Well done Victor [can't remember if I forgot or you didn't say what your surname is]  ! You've not only won a copy of my most useless book, you've won my second most useless book, too! Only joking. You've won the deluxe hardback edition.

Or "the pointlessly expensive version just for you" as Dolore calls it.


Victor, get in touch through the "Get in Touch" form at the top left of the blog.




I'll finish with a traditional:

buy my books!








* Alexei uses this word every sentence. It seems to mean "slag" so I've used it in that sense here. Fuck. Did I just explain what I wrote?  "Alexei, bring dad his revolver."

Final results by brewery (part three)

Whoohoo! (I should really have a band playing triumphal music.) It's finally here. The end of one of my longest series.

And, appropriately, this time some of my favourite breweries are featured. Objects of my obsession: Truman, Whitbread and new favourite Watney.

Beginning with Truman.

Brewery	style	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	score	rank	% bright
Truman	Burton	1013.4	1058.73	5.90	77.11%	0.77	5	54.55%
Truman	MA	1029.0	1007.5	2.79	74.31%	-0.63	2	50.00%
Truman	Pale Ale	1008.0	1047.5	5.14	83.09%	1.62	3	84.62%
Truman	Porter	1010.5	1037.0	3.43	71.62%	0.67	3
Truman	Stout	1017.6	1053.5	4.66	67.20%	1.00	5
Truman	X	1041.2	1011.8	3.82	71.44%	0.5	5	78.57%
average						0.65	3.8	66.93%

You'll not that the top score, Pale Ale, wasn't brewed at their home base of Brick Lane, but in Burton. It's a rare example of a combination of good score and good clarity. Mmm . . . isn't Burton water supposed to aid brightness? That could explain why this beer did so well. Though their Mild wasn't far behind, with almost 80% clear. Only MA, a watery type of Mild, lets them down with a negative score.

Now Watney, who have been the star performers.

Brewery	style	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	score	rank	% bright
Watney	Burton	1013.4	1058.73	5.90	77.11%	0.77	9	69.23%
Watney	Pale Ale	1011.4	1053.8	5.54	78.90%	2.21	2	64.29%
Watney	Porter	1010.0	1035.0	3.24	71.28%	1.44	1
Watney	Stout	1013.4	1054.9	5.40	75.55%	1.13	3
Watney	X	1043.6	1008.8	4.50	79.65%	1.25	2	94.12%
average						1.36	3.4	75.88%

As those results prove. Consistently good scores across all styles. And three quarters bright. Any score over 1 is pretty damn good, and Watney managed that with everything except Burton. 2.21 for its Pale Ale is outstanding. And to think that's probably the forerunner of Red Barrel. Getting their Mild near perfect for clarity is also impressive. Yup, I'd be positively seeking out Watney's pubs in the 1920's.

Wenlock has been a surprise.

Brewery	style	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	score	rank	% bright
Wenlock	Burton	1011.2	1052.46	5.38	78.69%	1.00	7	44.44%
Wenlock	Pale Ale	1006.9	1044.5	4.90	84.56%	0.09	9	63.64%
Wenlock	Porter	1011.3	1034.3	2.97	66.94%	-0.33	7
Wenlock	Stout	1016.1	1045.7	3.83	64.56%	1.36	2
Wenlock	X	1034.6	1007.2	3.57	79.21%	1.17	3	66.67%
average						0.66	5.6	58.25%

I hadn't expected them to do so well. All pretty good except for the Porter and Pale Ale, with the other three all scoring more than 1. Not quite so good with clarity, especially their Burton Ale. Some breweries - Wenlock, Watney and Mann - produced very decent Milds.

And finally . . . the people responsible for all this information . . . .

Brewery	style	FG	OG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	score	rank	% bright
Whitbread	Burton	1010.6	1053.2	5.56	80.26%	1.33	1	33.33%
Whitbread	MA	1028.7	1005.1	3.06	82.04%	0.67	3	0.00%
Whitbread	Pale Ale	1011.3	1046.0	4.51	75.55%	2.25	1	75.00%
Whitbread	Porter	1011.9	1034.7	2.95	65.87%	1.33	2
Whitbread	Stout	1014.8	1055.3	5.27	73.32%	2.00	1
Whitbread	X	1041.2	1007.6	4.38	81.62%	-0.2	11	60.00%
average						1.23	3.6	45.00%

Impressive, again. Though the sample sizes were much smaller than for the other breweries for some reason. That side, their Pale Ale got the highest average of any beer. And two other beers, Burton and Stout, came top in their class. The only disappointment is their X Ale. Bizarrely, their weaker Mild, MA, scored better. Pale Ale does quite well for clarity, with three quarters bright. Not so great with the others, especially Burton.

So there we are. Done, done and done. Except for the appendices.

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German brewing in 1960 - mashing and boiling

No, I hadn't forgotten. Just busy with too many things at the same time. Most of it Lager connected.

This type of brewer's report always fascinates me. They're useful, too, with a concise account of a country's brewing methods. That it's all about Lager is a plus.

On a totally unconnected note, I've a couple of Lager projects planned for next year. I hope they work out. It will be something no-one has ever seen before. And some of the information in this JIB article will play a role.

Anyway, back to German brewing in the time of the Wirtschaftswunder, starting with mashing:

"Brewing.—In a particular area there tended to be some conformity in the beer types produced and the mashing procedure adopted. All-malt mashes were enforced and again a common liquor treatment was to soften with saturated lime-water in the cold, then adding gypsum or calcium chloride in an extension of the softening apparatus; more simply, the gypsum was added dry to the grist. The flexibility of the process, whereby various beers of distinct character are produced by variations in the mashing procedure, is shown in Fig. 1, where the average mashing conditions for three typical pale beers are grouped together, ignoring the decoction details. This clearly underlines the desirability of obtaining good mash proteolysis where a full-drinking beer is required, the temperature chosen for saccharification being in rather closer agreement for each type."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 66, 1960, page 499.

It strikes me as random what is and isn't allowed according to the Reinheitsgebot. Why could you add gypsum to the mash? Unlike filtration agents, it will be present in the finished beer. So how come it doesn't count as an ingredient? I can sort of see the argument if the water is treated before brewing, but when you add it directly to the mash? That's taking the piss.

The diagram demonstrates nicely the difference in mashing techniques for different types of beer. The Pilsner scheme looks like Hochkurz (high short) mash. It's what was normally used for Pilsner as a standard decoction could add too much colour. Not sure what that Dortmund method is. It seems to have a lot of steps in it.

Here's a bit more about mashing:

"Six-roll mills with vibrating screens predominated, and regular grist analyses were performed to maintain the correct grind, which was considered particularly important with regard to lauter-tun filtration. The mash was made either by dropping the grist dry into the prepared length of liquor in the tun, or by mixing grist and liquor externally in a vortex pre-masher and making up with liquor to standard dip in the tun. Two decoctions were usually made for pale beers and three for Munich, about one-third of the mash being decocted in each case, with the actual quantity dependent on the temperatures required."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 66, 1960, page 499.

That's a bit vague on decoction details. Two decoctions for pale beers? Didn't the Dortmund scheme in the diagram have three? By "Munich" I'm pretty sure he means Munich Dunkles. I wonder why that got an extra decoction? Possibly tradition. A description of the Munich method of mashing by Julius Otto, published in 1865 (when all Munich Lagers were dark) specifies a triple decoction.

Now something about the brewing kit employed:

"Two breweries in Dortmund which suffered from shortage of space had installed block brewhouse units. These were of different designs, but in each case the block unit consisted of mash and decoction vessels mounted above the copper, with the mash taken off to a separate mash filter.

Brewing plant in Bavaria usually consisted of the traditional double brewhouse with 4 vessels — mash tun, mash kettle, lauter tun and wort kettle. New plant tended to retain the lauter tun in preference to the mash filter, even in large breweries, although it was admitted that, with a poor malt, filtration could take over 6 hr."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 66, 1960, page 499.

Six hour runofff - sounds as bad as having loads of oats in the grist. Four vessels? I though traditional Lager breweries had two? Have I been missing something.  or have I only seen smaller, simpler breweries?

Block brewhouse units? What the hell are they?

"Boiling was usually vigorous although fountain spreaders were not used, and the hop rate varied from 7 oz. per brl. for the voll-bier type to 13 oz. for Pilsner. Plant for hop- and hot-trub-separation was generally two-fold, as in Denmark. Traditionally the trub was allowed to settle out on the coolship after the hops had been strained off, the bright wort was decanted and cooled on open horizontal refrigerators and the trub wort filtered on a press with cloths. Although slow and open to infection, this process was still prevalent in Bavaria, but newer plant in the North replaced the coolship by an enclosed stainless-steel tank, and trub wort filtration was then either by self-emptying centrifuge or through kieselguhr. Plate cooling was then employed, although the filtered trub wort was usually re-sterilized before being cooled and mixed with bright wort."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 66, 1960, page 500.

Oh great, something specific about hopping rates. You can see how low they are if you compare them to Whitbread's:

Whitbread beers in 1960
Date	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	Hops oz/brl
2nd Mar	Best Ale	Mild	1030.6	1010.0	2.73	67.32%	5.67	11.14
1st Mar	FB	Brown Ale	1033.3	1009.0	3.21	72.97%	5.25	11.24
2nd Mar	KKKK	Strong Ale	1051.8	1016.0	4.74	69.11%	7.50	24.88
10th Jun	PA	Pale Ale	1038.6	1012.0	3.52	68.91%	5.89	14.56
29th Feb	WPA	Pale Ale	1035.5	1008.0	3.64	77.46%	8.63	19.97
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/01/127.

Pilsner was barely more heavily hopped than sub-3% ABV Mild. The only Whitbread beer of a similar gravity to the Lagers, KKKK, has double the hops. At this point British beers were no longer particularly heavily hopped. My conclusion is that German Lagers were very lightly hopped.

I've seen plenty of open coolers in small German breweries. Annoying that the author calls them "Coolships" again. One of the reasons coolers continued to be used after other cooling methods were invented was because of the gunk that settled out when wort was in them.

Now here's something I've not come across:

"One novel process was seen which employed a system of wet grinding. Malt was washed and pre-soaked in cold liquor for 10-15 min. before being passed through a single pair of crushing rollers along with the actual mashing liquor. The grain was thereby merely squashed, the husks being undamaged, and this was said to facilitate lautering. This apparatus was built into a fully automatic remote-controlled brewhouse which has now been in successful operation for 4 years."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 66, 1960, page 500.

Crushing soaked grains sounds totally crazy. I wonder what sort of yield they got with that method? I'd be worried about leaving lots of goodness in the grains.

Next time it's fermentation.