Wednesday 15 October 2014

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.

1 comment:

Gary Gillman said...

That's very interesting Ron. I'm starting to convince myself that the longer the storage, the more likely the modern stenchy sulphur notes of much lager would have been aged out of the beer. I.e., elimination of "green" flavours which home brewers talk about.

In the immediate pre-Jackson period, one U.S. beer was still long-aged and not only that, it went, um, the full nine yards:

https://sites.google.com/site/jesskidden/holacher's9montholdperfectionbeer

Of the reputed U.S. beers available in the 1970's, e.g. Ballantine IPA (now returned but haven't tried it yet), Yuengling and Stegmaier Porters, Anchor Steam Beer, Rainier Ale aka The Green Death (7% ABV, throwback to 1800's English mild ale), the Horlacher is the only one I could never track down.

Note how the pamphlet description uses almost the same term as the 1960 Brewer's Journal, "adequate storage space". I find that odd because by definition anyone proposing to keep beer 9 months has to have the space to do it. It kind of begs the point to say I don't have the space to age beer 9 months because I need to ensure my other production requirements are met. Putting it a different way, maybe having adequate storage space meant being under-capacity - brewers, like any business, can make a negative into a positive...

Gary