Wicked taxation

Recurring themes. British brewing has lots of them. Complaining about the high level of taxation is one.

This letter to a newspaper bangs away on that theme for a while, but also throws in fags and widespread pub closures. Sounds very modern, doesn’t it?

“Sir, —As a result the fantastic, crippling, wicked taxation now thrust upon a long-suffering nation, allied with the outrageously high cost living (and money tighter), it was not surprising to read in the newspapers recently that over a million pounds had been knocked off brewery shares on the Stock Exchange.

The fact that 2,000,000 barrels of beer less were sold in 1949 speaks for itself. It clearly shows the public are at long last becoming wiser, by getting their backs up and adopting a typical bull-dog grim-like attitude in a firm refusal to pay the grossly unfair 9d. tax on a 1s. pint of weak beer. It would not be so bad if the 1s. pint of beer was 100 per cent strong ale, but the fact that it is of such low gravity, not much stronger than lemonade, is adding insult to injury far as the customer is concerned.

What a striking contrast to the war years, when with plenty of money about and production of beer supplies restricted, the harassed publican on his meagre daily allocation (so as to keep open all the week) very often was compelled to put the towel over the beer engine pumps, and display notices on the counters, "No more beer to-night," at approximately 9 o'clock each evening.

What a sensational difference to-day, with mostly 5-day working week, practically all bonus cut, resulting in less money being earned by workers in general. It is only natural that considerable hardship is bound to be felt by those workers who have families to support, and of those who enter into this category the majority will find that it is more or less a week-end adventure, i.e., such as paying a small subscription in to the local Thrift Christmas Club on a Friday evening (a couple of pints will probably be the limit), and then he is finished until the following week-end.

Also the fantastic tax on cigarettes clearly reveals why there is such a slump on the "Beer Front," a smoke is still a long odds-on favourite with workers in general, which obviously means that most of us cannot afford indulge in both vices.

Unless something drastic is done quickly, such as 3d. or 4d. reduction on a pint of beer, and the beer produced on the pre-war 100 per cent strong beer scale, I can visualise many publicans closing down, for the public are thoroughly browned off.
BERT WILLIAMS.
5, Albany-road,
Tivoli, Cheltenham.”
Gloucestershire Echo - Friday 03 February 1950, page 4.

You might be forgiven for thinking that 9d a pint in tax is an exaggeration. It isn’t. At the start of 1949, the tax rate was 364s 4.5d per standard barrel. For a beer of average gravity for that year, 1033.4º, that works out to 9.25d per ping. The rate was dropped to 343s 4.5d a standard barrel in April. Which is a mere 8.71d per pint. You can understand why the letter writer found that wicked.

A 3d or 4d reduction per pint would have cost the government a lot of money. OK, consumption would most likely have increased, but not enough to offset the lower rate. Beer was an important revenue source: £294,678,035 in 1949. Hang on. Consumption couldn’t have increased naturally, as brewing materials were still controlled. Revenues would inevitably have fallen.

I’ve always thought of the immediate post-war period as one of full employment. It was. But if you’d got used to lots of overtime during WW II, you might have seen your income fall. I seem to remember my Mum telling me that she worked 12 hours a day for some of the war. And a lot of wartime worked paid well. The combination of fewer hours and a lower hourly rate must have really hit incomes. How ironic that when there was as much beer to be had as you wanted, many didn’t have the money to buy it.

Temperance bastards got all annoyed about beer not being rationed in WW II. But effectively, it was. Or at least the supply of beer was rationed. Brewers were told how beer they could brew (a percentage of their 1939 output). They were very careful about who they sent beer to and how much they sent. Just like the publican putting a towel over his pumps long before closing time, ekeing out what they had as best they could.

More 1950's craziness soon.

It's Friday night

Yay. No more work. For two days.

Lots of stuff to do, but no inclination other than to pour another Abt. Did I mention there's lots going on in my life?

It's my own fault I have too many ideas. In the shower. On the tram. Ticking away at my keyboard. Two book ideas this evening. One that might even tempt a publisher.

There's a manual I should be reading*. But I'm listening to Steely Dan instead. Only a fool would say that. Seems appropriate.

I've spent the week drinking - and sometimes throwing  - away the beer that clutters the floor around me. I need to clear space*. And to minimise the percentage of my income that goes to Ton Overmars. I have no choice. "Where are you going to put that thing? You'll have to get rid of other stuff."

As always, Dolores has a point.

It's been fairly painless so far. Drank some stuff that needed drinking. Slung some never right or past its best. Found a couple of gems I won't be drinking in a while. The Rochefort 10 with a sell by date of 06 10 1998. It originally had five mates. The pair I drank after 10 years sent my socks into orbit.

There's a very dusty Wesvleteren 12 with the date rubbed off. Could one of the ones Filip gave me for a bit of beer menu rewriting. That would be around 10 years old. Or could be a remnant from the crate I got at Bierkoning more than 20 years ago.

Meant to say this earlier. Despite what I've been telling everyone all year, I won't be at Borefts. I'll be doing some judging at the Stockholm Beer & Whisky Festival. Dolores thinks I'm crazy. Nothing new there. Again, she may have a point. There's a 10-hour judging session. Let's hope I don't get non-alcoholic Lagers again. I contemplated drowning myself in the toilets that time. Only the prospect of free chips for lunch saved me.

Just had to pour another Abt to celebrate my fleeting freedom from wage slavery. Where was I?

Friday night, relaxing. Ideas. For me they turn too readily into obsessions. With the access I have to material, even a vague interest can result in thousands of hours - what does Dolores say ? - "doing that useless beer shit".

She has a point. There's fuck all money in it.

But the almost-rans of fifties merger mania. That's worth 1% of my remaining time on earth, isn't it?



* Why will become clear soon. 

Flowers Breweries Ltd. (part one)

I’m returning to Flowers. Mostly because I found a great article about their acquisition by J.W. Green of Luton.

But I’ve a deeper reason, too. Because it demonstrates something about the process of amalgamation which left the UK with seven large brewing groups (the Big Six) dominating the industry. It was by no means a foregone conclusion who would triumph and some of the early frontrunners ended up as fodder. Flowers is a good example of the latter.

When J.W. Green bought Flower & Sons in 1954, it created a substantial group, one of the largest in the country. Here are some details:

“£10m Brewery Centre
LUTON TO BE H.Q. OF HUGE MERGER
Plans For "Importing” Flower’s Bitter Beer
LUTON will be the headquarters of a new £10,000,000 brewery group as a result of the merging of J. W. Green, Ltd., the Luton brewers, and Flower and Sons, of Stratford-on-Avon.

Terms of the merger announced this week show that the deal will be on a share exchange basis. It is also proposed to change the name of the J. W. Green Group of companies to Flowers Breweries, Ltd., but the Luton brewery will retain its identity as J. W. Green, Ltd.

The terms are to come before an extraordinary general meeting of the two companies later this month.

The Luton Brewery controls about 1,100 licensed houses, and Flowers some 400.

In the letter of offer sent to shareholders, the chairman J. W. Green, Ltd., Mr. Bernard Dixon, says that the Luton Brewery is now working to full capacity, and further extensions now would be extremely costly. Flowers Brewery, he states, is particularly well equipped, and has ample capacity for development without major expense. About £500,000 has been spent on the brewery since the war.

Since 1948 J. W. Green. Ltd. has acquired seven breweries in different parts of the country, and the merger will create one of the biggest units in the brewing industry.

Well-known brands of bottled beers from Luton will be sent further afield. and Flowers famous bitter will be “imported" into this area. Subsidiary companies of the group will gradually lose their identity.”
Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle - Thursday 04 March 1954, page 9.

1,500 pubs would have been one of the largest estates at the time.  And when Whitbread got their hands on them, it formed a sizeable part of their estate. This should put that number into some context:

UK pub ownership 1974 - 1989
Bewery	UK Breweries	% beer sales	On Licences (1974)	% On Licences	On Licences (1989)
Bass Charrington	12	20	9,256	8.15%	7,300
Allied Breweries	7	17	7,665	6.75%	6,000
Whitbread	19	13	7,865	6.92%	6,500
Watney/Grand Met	8	12	5,946	5.23%	6,100
Scottish & Newcastle	3	11	1,678	1.48%	2,300
Courage	8	9	5,921	5.21%	5,100
Guinness	1	9	0	0	0
Total Big Seven	58	91	38,331	33.7%	33,300
Others	89	9	13,800	12.1%
Tied Trade			52,131	45.9%
Free Trade			61,498	54.1%
Total	147	100	113,629
Source:
“The Brewing Industry, a Guide to Historical Records” by Lesley Richmond & Alison Turton.
Notes:
No. breweries and % beer sales 1976
No. on licences 1974

The total number of on licences in the table is a bit deceptive as it includes restaurants and clubs as well as pubs. In 1974 the number of pub licences in the UK was 70,495*.

Building a pub estate was what it was all about back then. About the only way to realistically increase sales was to acquire more tied houses. As most pubs were owned by breweries, buying breweries was the simplest way get hold of more.

Often the brewery itself wasn’t required and was quickly closed. Which wasn’t the case here. It sounds as if J.W. Green was having capacity problems and Flowers nice, modern brewery would come in handy.

I suspect Flowers may have had a better reputation than J.W. Green. Why else call the combined company Flowers Breweries Ltd.? That Flowers Bitter was to be sold in Green’s other houses implies it had a good name.

Too much goodness in the article – and too much other Flowers and J.W. Green stuff – for a single post. Next time some more details of the merger and of the other breweries absorbed into the group. Plus its eventual fate.



* 2011 Statistical Handbook of the BBPA, page 74.

Coronation Beers (part three)

As promised, if a little later than expected, the best brew since 1914.

Thinking about it, 1953 was only 39 years after 1914. There must have been plenty of older drinkers around who could remember the powerful Ales from before WW I. What an odd experience it must have been to have a few years of drinking full-strength beers, then see them become ever more watery as your drinking career progressed. Not so much odd as depressing, I guess.

But I digress. We’re looking at Coronation beer again. See if you can guess which brewery it is. For some reason the article is coy about naming the name.

“Coronation beer, best brew since 1914,
to be 1s 6d bottle
Evening Post Reporter
TODAY, somewhat prematurely. I admit, I drank the health of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II a fully-matured mellow heavy beer, brother to the famed Coronation beer.

While I talked to Mr W. E. Harbord. director of a Tadcaster brewery which has made this taste of "the good old days." the liquid Itself was busy maturing in huge tanks in preparation for the end of February when it will flow into "nip" bottles, ready for distribution to the public during the Coronation celebrations.

Although I was unable to sample the "beautifully fragrant and aromatic" taste of the Coronation beer. I can lay many of the rumours rife about it. Firstly it will be sold in the now familiar, small old-ale bottles, with special Coronation label.

Each contains a third of pint, and will cost 1s. 6d., not 2s. 6d. as was rumoured.

Says Mr Harbord. The Coronation is an opportunity for to give the public something which we are not normally allowed to produce."”
Yorkshire Evening Post - Friday 02 January 1953, page 10.

I’m pretty sure the brewery is John Smiths. Which is dead handy, as we’ll see in a minute. To put that price into context, a pint of Mild would have cost around 1s. 2d. and a pint of Ordinary Bitter 1s. 4d. A nip bottle of Guinness, which at the time was a bit over 5% ABV, was 1s. Making 1s. 6d. not unreasonable for a really strong beer.

The bit about not normally being able to produce a beer like that is a reference to gravity restrictions. I’d tell you what they were, but I’m having a devil of a time tracking them down. There seems to have been an upper limit on gravity that was abolished sometime around this period. I’ll need to do some more digging.

This sounds like something I would have liked:

“Victory ale
To get some Idea what Mr. Harbord meant this I was given glass of Victory ale brewed in 1945 to celebrate the end of hostilities.

This, although not as strong the Coronation beer, was brewed in the same way and has a taste and bouquet, after seven years, unknown except to those who were drinking before 1914.

While telling me of the delights of the Coronation beer, head brewer Mr. W. Gall, handling the Victory ale with the touch of an expert wine taster - glass held by the base and sniffing appreciatively — said: "This is a lovely beer and the Coronation beer on the same basis has had a lot of care taken with it.

"It will mature for about two months, giving it its quality and character and then be put into the several thousand dozen bottles awaiting it. It has a fragrant and delightful bouquet and will be half as strong again as the present heavy beer sold as old ale."”
Yorkshire Evening Post - Friday 02 January 1953, page 10.

Two months was quite a long maturation period by then. Very few beers were given any sort of long time to develop, with only a handful of true Stock Ales still being brewed.

The last sentence is dead useful. Because I’ve two analyses of John Smiths Old Ale from that very year:

John Smiths Old Ale in 1953
Beer	Price	size	package	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
Magnet Old Ale	1/1d	nip	bottled	0.07	1068.5	1024.5	5.70	64.23%	11 + 40
Magnet Old Ale	1/2d	nip	bottled	0.06	1072.5	1022.9	6.44	68.41%	11 + 40
Source:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.

As brewers usually meant gravity when talking about strength, that would make John Smiths Coronation Ale around 1100º. Or about as strong as beer came.

So I believe them when they claim this:

“Stronger than all
Mr. Gall was responsible for the final composition of the Coronation beer and has put the best of his 20 years' experience into the final product.

The brewery has made several special heavy beers for special occasions — the last Coronation, victory days, and the brewery's centenary - but this Coronation beer will stronger than any of them.

With the wistful look of a connoisseur, Mr. Gall said. "In the fermenting room there was lovely aroma the whole time we brewed it. It will be a grand beer."

If it is anything like its mature brother, the Victory beer, it certainly will be”
Yorkshire Evening Post - Friday 02 January 1953, page 10.

I’m sure it was stronger than anything they had brewed for a long while.

Next time: another Yorkshire Coronation Ale.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1955 Flowers OB

Yet another Flowers beer. Don’t worry – only another three to go after this one. Though expect a sudden inexplicable switch to 19th-century Scottish beers soon. For which I have a very good reason. Two very good reasons, in fact.

This time I really don’t have any idea what OB stands for. None of the labels I have matches. The best match I can come up with comparing the beer to analyses of Flowers beers in the Whitbread Gravity Book in Brewmaster, a bottled Pale Ale. Could the B in OB be for Brewmaster? Possibly. But I’m not going to get too carried away.

I could probably tell for sure by looking a little further back in Flowers brewing records. Because Brewmaster wasn’t originally a Flowers brand. It came from J.W. Green of Luton, with whom Flowers merged in the spring of 1954. I say merged. Effectively J.W. Green took over Flowers, though oddly the name of the new company was Flowers Breweries, Ltd. I’ll be telling you more about the merger later. But for the moment let’s concentrate on this beer.

It's been pointed out to me that there was a beer called Flowers Original Bitter. I shouldn't have needed it pointing out as I almost certainly drank it back in the 1980's.That's why I couldn't find a label: it was a draught beer.

It’s another minimalist  classic, containing only a handful of ingredients. Though I suspect there was some caramel used for colour correction. You won’t get a beer as dark as the colour specified on the brew sheet with the ingredients listed. Just a cosmetic thing, really, so don’t feel obliged to do it. I doubt it has any noticeable effect on the beer’s flavour.

Goldings are a pure guess as the hop variety. Mostly based on the fact that it’s a highish gravity Pale Ale. Good-quality Pale Ales were usually hopped with Goldings.

Nothing left but to hit you with the recipe.

1955 Flowers OB
pale malt	8.75 lb	92.11%
No. 1 invert	0.50 lb	5.26%
malt extract	0.25 lb	2.63%
Goldings 90 min	1.00 oz
Goldings 60 min	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 min	0.75 oz
OG	1043.4
FG	1011
ABV	4.29
Apparent attenuation	74.65%
IBU	41
SRM	7
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	160º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	60º F
Yeast	WLP007 Dry English Ale

Get ready for some big changes to these posts. I’ll reveal more later this week.

Fullers beers in 1946

I’m so busy collecting brewing records I sometimes forget to fully process those I already have. I was shocked to realise that I hadn’t gone through any of the post-war Fullers. And it’s years ago That I harvested them.

What better place to start than 1946, the first post-war year. Which also neatly ties in with my austerity theme. The idea is that it will become a book at some point. Presumably when I get bored of the research. That doesn’t look like happening anytime soon.

WW II, like WW I, did a good job of forcing brewers to rationalise their range. Before the war, Fullers brewed 8 different beers: 3 Pale Ales, 2 Mild Ales, 2 Strong Ales and Porter. In 1946, that was down to just 6: 2 Pale Ales, 1 Mild, 1 Strong Ale and Porter. Though one of the Pale Ales, DA (presumably Dinner Ale) was a new beer. One that seems to have got the chop in 1946.

There were different reasons for dropping beers. XX and OBE were presumably dropped for being too strong. While AK and XK had no place when PA was dropped down to a gravity lower or equal to them. The same process did for 4d Ale at other breweries, the WW I relic weak Mild with a gravity or around 1028º. When WW II forced standard Mild down to a similar gravity, it disappeared.

Here’s a table to show the changes in range and gravity at Fullers across the war years:

Fullers beers in 1939 and 1946
Beer	Style	1939	1946	% change
DA	Pale Ale	-	1031.0	-
AK	Pale Ale	1033.4	-	-
XK	Pale Ale	1039.4	-	-
PA	Pale Ale	1051.1	1034.6	32.30%
X	Mild	1032.3	1030.7	4.87%
XX	Mild	1042.5	-	-
BO	Strong Ale	1055.5	1038.8	30.07%
OBE	Strong Ale	1068.9	-	-
P	Porter	1038.5	1030.7	20.27%
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

PA took the biggest gravity hit, falling by almost a third. While X saw only a slight reduction in strength.

Now let’s look more closely at the 1946 beers. My first impression is: you weren’t going to get very pissed in a Fullers pub. Especially in the Autumn when gravities were cut and only the Burton, BO, had an ABV over 3%. Desperate times.

I’m struck by the poor degree of attenuation. Pre-war it was mostly at least 75%. This is because they haven’t reduced the FG by much. That implies to me that they were sacrificing ABV for body. Fearing the beers would seem thin if too highly attenuated.

Not much I can say about the hopping, other than that it looks about normal for beers of this period and gravity.

Don’t get confused by the Porter. It wasn’t sold as Porter anymore and wasn’t a draught beer. A bottled beer called Nourishing Stout is what it really was.

Fullers beers in 1946
Date	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenuation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	boil time (hours)	boil time (hours)	Pitch temp	max. fermentation temp	length of fermentation (days)
6th Jun	PA	Pale Ale	1034.6	1010.8	3.15	68.80%	6.74	0.97	1.5	1.75	62º	68º	8
6th Jun	DA	Pale Ale	1031.0	1010.0	2.79	67.86%	6.74	0.87	1.5	1.75	62º	68º	8
12th Jun	X	Mild	1030.7	1009.1	2.86	70.27%	4.48	0.61	1.5	1.75	62º	68º	7
13th Jun	PA	Pale Ale	1034.6	1010.0	3.26	71.20%	7.01	0.97	1.5	1.75	62.5º	68º	6
13th Jun	DA	Pale Ale	1030.8	1008.9	2.90	71.22%	7.01	0.86	1.5	1.75	62º	68º	6
17th Jun	X	Mild	1030.7	1009.7	2.79	68.47%	4.79	0.61	1.5	1.75	62º	68º	5
20th Jun	P	Porter	1030.7	1011.1	2.59	63.87%	5.93	0.81	1.75		62º	67º	6
2nd Oct	PA	Pale Ale	1029.5	1008.3	2.81	71.86%	6.94	0.83	1.5	1.75	62.5º	68º	7
3rd Oct	X	Mild	1029.6	1008.3	2.81	71.88%	4.83	0.59	1.5	1.75	62.5º	68º	5
22nd Oct	P	Porter	1029.3	1010.5	2.48	64.08%	5.95	0.81	1.75		63º	67º	5
25th Nov	BO	Strong Ale	1038.8	1010.8	3.70	72.14%	4.77	0.77	1.5	1.75	61º	69º	8
25th Nov	X	Mild	1029.7	1008.6	2.79	71.06%	4.77	0.59	1.5	1.75	62º	68º	5
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

Now for the grists. Not there’s much to them. Just pale malt, flaked barley and sugar. Lots of different types of sugar, though the percentage of the grist they formed was relatively low, only 8% or 9%. Had the brewer been given a free choice, it would have been higher,  probably around double that level. But sugar was rationed and brewers could only use what they were allowed.

Fullers only used a grand total of two malt: pale malt and black malt in P. Not that the war had anything to do with that. They’d operated exactly the same way before the war.

I can’t say much about the hops. Only the growers name is listed, not region of origin or variety. Then there’s hopulon, some sort hop preparation or substitute. Whitbread also used it in this period. 1 lb of hopulon is the equivalent of 7 lbs of hops. At least that’s what it says on the brewing record.

Fullers beers in 1946
Date	Beer	Style	OG	pale malt	black malt	flaked barley	no. 2 sugar	caramel	glucose	PEX	Intense	Sp. Dark	primings	hops
6th Jun	PA	Pale Ale	1034.6	75.76%		15.46%	2.06%		2.06%	2.06%	0.21%		2.39%	English, hopulon
6th Jun	DA	Pale Ale	1031.0	75.76%		15.46%	2.06%		2.06%	2.06%	0.21%		2.39%	English, hopulon
12th Jun	X	Mild	1030.7	78.29%		14.50%			3.48%	1.93%	1.46%		0.35%	English, hopulon
13th Jun	PA	Pale Ale	1034.6	77.57%		15.85%	2.22%		1.67%	2.22%	0.21%		0.25%	English, hopulon
13th Jun	DA	Pale Ale	1030.8	77.57%		15.85%	2.22%		1.67%	2.22%	0.21%		0.25%	English, hopulon
17th Jun	X	Mild	1030.7	75.57%		15.26%			3.88%	2.42%	1.57%		1.30%	English, hopulon
20th Jun	P	Porter	1030.7	58.62%	10.19%	7.65%		4.79%		3.40%		13.59%	1.76%	English, hopulon
2nd Oct	PA	Pale Ale	1029.5	77.80%		16.21%	2.16%		1.62%	1.62%	0.24%		0.35%	English, hopulon
3rd Oct	X	Mild	1029.6	76.47%		15.29%			3.64%	2.18%	1.57%		0.84%	English, hopulon
22nd Oct	P	Porter	1029.3	57.36%	11.47%	5.74%		5.19%		3.82%		15.30%	1.13%	English, hopulon
25th Nov	BO	Strong Ale	1038.8	74.61%		15.87%			4.23%	2.12%	1.40%		1.77%	English, hopulon
25th Nov	X	Mild	1029.7	74.61%		15.87%			4.23%	2.12%	1.40%		1.77%	English, hopulon
Source:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.

More Fullers fun to come if I can be arsed to go through more of their records. Maybe some recipes. Not done any Fullers ones for a while.

Braustolz beers

Another day, another brewery from the former DDR.

And from a town that sort of exemplified the DDR, it being the one they changed the name of: Karl-Marx-Stadt, or Chemnitz as it’s once again called. I’m still getting used to the name Chemnitz, even after 25 years. Hardleers, is what the Dutch would call me. (Not sure what a correct English translation of that would be.)

Friedrich August Kupfer founded the Feldschlösschen Brauerei in 1868. It was an early example of the new Lager breweries established in the North of Germany. The breweries which would sweep away the old top-fermenting styles of the region. Later it adopted the name Braustolz.

As a relatively large business, Braustolz left private ownership in the first round of nationalisations in the 1950’s and became VEB Brautolz. At the time there were five breweries in Karl-Marx-Stadt, of which one other, Schloß was also nationalised  and three privately owned, Einsiedler, Germania and Reichenbrand. Surprisingly, both Einsiedler and Reichenbrand are still in business.

In the second round of nationalisations in 1972, all five breweries were grouped together as the VEB Getränkekombinat Karl-Marx-Stadt. Lumping together all the breweries in a region into one group was a feature of the late DDR.

In the 1990’s, Braustolz was bought by the Kulmbacher Brauerei. One of my least favourite in Franconia, if I’m honest. Though it has continued to operate the brewery in Chemnitz. It currently produces beer under the brads Braustolz and Kappler (named after the part of Chemnitz where the brewery is located). It brews around 150,000 hl a year. This is their current range:

Braustolz beers in 2015
Beer	style	OG Plato	ABV
Braustolz Helles Lager	Helles	9.7	4%
Braustolz Pilsner	Pilsner	11.1	4.9%
Braustolz Landbier	Helles	11.7	5.2%
Braustolz Schwarzbier	Schwarzbier	12	5.2%
Braustolz Spezial Export	Export	12.1	5.4%
Braustolz Bockbier	Dunkler Bock	16.1	6.6%
Braustolz Doppel-Caramel	Doppel-Caramel		0.0%
Kappler Braumeister	Export		5.2%
Kappler Festbier	Festbier		5.4%
Source:
Braustolz website http://www.braustolz.de.

A couple of interesting beers in there. I’m amazed that they still brew Doppel-Caramel, though it can’t be the same as the DDR-period version, as that contained some alcohol. The Helles Lager has a very odd gravity for a German beer. Being under 11º Plato, it doesn’t count as a Vollbier. Though the high degree of attenuation means that it’s probably almost the same ABV as their old Hell.

The Pilsner and Bock are most likely the beers that have changed the least. Landbier is a popular, but essentially meaningless, name. All sorts of beers of different strengths and even colour have the name plonked on them. I guess the idea is to make it sound like an old-fashioned country beer. Schwarzbier also tells a story. I can’t recall there being any example, other than Köstritzer. There may have been, but I’ve never even seen a label for one. The style has grown in popularity since reunification and many breweries in Saxony make one.


Sources:
Brauerei-Adressbuch, 2014/2015

http://www.braustolz.de/brauerei/geschichte.html
http://www.bierguru.de/Biergegenden/Sachsen/Chemnitz/