Saturday 20 March 2010

Lager ca 1955

I'm just about at the end of Andrew Campbell's description of 1950's styles. ("Hurray!", I hear you say.) We've got to Lager.

It was very much a minority style, though there was probably at least as much choice of different brands as in Britain today. Though, as I recently posted, lager accounted for about 20% of  Barclay Perkins output. The bigger profit margin Lager offered was beginning to attract the attention of the larger brewers.


"Lager

Although more popular on the continent of Europe and in the United States, there are several well-known brands of British lager - Barclay's, Graham's, Red Tower and others. With the return to normal trading, the leading Czech, German, Danish and Dutch lagers are available  in those bars that hold varied stocks. Important differences in brewing practice have already been noted. A fairly high percentage of maize flakes and a more light cured pale ale barley malts are used for light lagers, whilst dark lagers of the Munich type have many qualities of light stouts. The decoction method of mashing and very light hopping with bottom fermentation are the general rule. After the first stages of fermentation the beer is left to mature in 'lagers' or storage tanks for as long as a year. Attenuation is as high as eighty percent.

The treatment results in a beer of subtle flavour, and sometimes of deceptive alcoholic strength. The very light mild flavour is popular with the ladies. Lagers are refrigerated, most carefully filtered and can be served ice-cold without any risk of clouding or hazing.

Strengths vary. Some lagers are weak, others appear to be, their lighter flavour misleading the drinker. An average of four per cent alcohol is common. Some British lagers are rather below the average, some German lagers well above. The famous Danish Carlsberg and Tuborg brands are near the average, and some of the popular Dutch types, Oranjeboom and Heinekens, and the French beers from Alsace are of fair body and flavour."
"The Book Of Beer" by Andrew Campbell, 1956, page 94.

Popular with the ladies. I hadn't realised anyone had ever said that without irony. But I think we can excuse Campbell this one piece of condescension.

It just so happens that I have details of pretty much every Lager Campbell mentions:

-->
Lager in Britain in the 1950's
Year
Brewer
Country
Beer
Price
size
package
FG
OG
Colour
ABV
Atten-uation
1957
Amstel
Holland
Lager
1/9d
half
bottled
1007.2
1030.8
9.5
3.06
76.62%
1956
Artois Brewery
Belgium
Sparta Special Lager

half
bottled
1015.2
1053.2
20
4.93
71.43%
1957
Artois Brewery
Belgium
Stella Lager
1/8d
half
bottled
1007.6
1044.3
8
4.78
82.84%
1957
Barclay Perkins
UK
Pilsner Lager

half
bottled
1006.3
1035
9
3.73
82.00%
1957
Bierbrouwerij De Wereld
Holland
Piraat Lager Beer
2/-
16 oz
bottled
1005.7
1032.8
9
3.52
82.62%
1957
Brasseries Artois, Louvain
Belgium
Stella Lager

half
bottled
1006.5
1039.7
9
4.32
83.63%
1957
Carlings
Canada
Black Label
1/9d
half
bottled
1006
1031
4.5
3.25
80.65%
1957
Carlings Brewery
Canada
Black Label
2/-
half
bottled
1007.7
1036.3
75
3.71
78.79%
1957
Carlsberg, Copenhagen
Denmark
Danish Pilsner
1/8d
half
bottled
1008.4
1031.5
9
2.99
73.33%
1956
Carlton & United Breweries Ltd.
Australia
Export Lager
2/-
half
bottled
1004.5
1046.2
8
5.45
90.26%
1957
Carlton United
Australia
Fosters Export Lager
2/-
half
bottled
1005.8
1046
8.5
5.25
87.39%
1957
Dortmunder Union
Germany
Pilsener
1/9d
0.25 litre
bottled
1007.4
1042.8
8
4.61
82.71%
1956
Flowers
UK
Lager
1/6d
half
bottled
1014
1040.4
9
3.41
65.35%
1957
Flowers
UK
Lager
1/6d
half
bottled
1017.9
1045
9
3.50
60.22%
1957
Flowers Breweries Ltd.
UK
Flowers Lager

half
bottled
1017.5
1050
14
4.20
65.00%
1956
Frydenlunds Brewery, Oslo
Norway
Peak Lager
1/3d
half
bottled
1005.7
1034.3
12
3.72
83.38%
1957
Graham's
UK
Pilsener Lager
1/8d
half
bottled
1007.2
1035.6
9
3.69
79.78%
1957
Graham's Golden Lager
UK
Pilsner Lager

half
bottled
1007.3
1030.4
11
3.00
75.99%
1957
Heineken's
Holland
Lager
1/9d
half
bottled
1009
1038.7
5
3.86
76.74%
1957
Holsten Brewery, Germany
Germany
Holsten Pilsner
1/9d
half
bottled
1008.2
1044.7
8
4.75
81.66%
1955
Liebmann Breweries
USA
Rheingold Extra Dry Lager


can
1011.6
1049.8
6
4.97
76.71%
1957
Löwenbräu
Germany
Pale Bock
2/6d
0.33 litre
bottled
1014.3
1061.9
6
6.20
76.90%
1956
Miller, Milwuakee
USA
High Life (as sold to US forces in UK)
1/1d
13 fl. oz
can
1012.3
1045.7
6
4.33
73.09%
1955
National Brewery [USA]
USA
Beer


bottled
1011
1050.9
10
5.19
78.39%
1956
NV Bierbrouwerij, Holland
Holland
Breda Lager
2/-
half
bottled
1005.3
1033.2
7
3.63
84.04%
1957
Oranjeboom Brewery, Holland
Holland
Dutch Pilsener
1/9d
half
bottled
1007.8
1033.3
9
3.31
76.58%
1955
Pabst [USA]
USA
Blue Ribbon


can
1011.7
1048.9
9
4.84
76.07%
1957
Pilsner Urquell
Czech Republic
Pilsener
2/-
half
bottled
1010
1036.3
9
3.41
72.45%
1956
Red Tower Lager Brewery
UK
Red Tower Pilsner Lager
1/4d
half
bottled
1005.9
1031.2
10
3.29
81.09%
1955
Ringnes
Norway
Export Pilsener
2/-
pint
bottled
1010.9
1053.8
11
5.59
79.74%
1957
Schous Brewery, Norway
Norway
Norwegian Beer

half
bottled
1006.6
1042.2
12
4.64
84.36%
1954
Steel & Coulson
UK
Lager Beer
1/3d
half
bottled
1004.3
1032
11
3.60
86.56%
1955
Swedish Beer Export Co. Gothenburg
Sweden
Three Crowns Beer (Lager)
1/3d
half
bottled
1008.7
1052.9
9
5.77
83.55%
1955
Tennent
UK
Lager
1/3d
half
bottled
1007.7
1036.1
9
3.69
78.67%
1957
Tennent
UK
Lager Beer
1/8d
12 oz
bottled
1008.6
1040.6
11
4.16
78.82%
1957
Tuborg
Denmark
Export Beer
1/8d
half
bottled
1011.5
1052.3
7
5.31
78.01%
1957
Tuborg
Denmark
Lager
1/8d
half
bottled
1005.8
1030.7
10
3.23
81.11%
1957
Vandenheuvel, Belgium
Belgium
Ekla
1/9d
half
bottled
1008.2
1046.3
7
4.96
82.29%
1957
Wm. McEwan & Wm. Younger
UK
"MY" Export Lager
1/3d
half
bottled
1006.3
1033.6
13
3.55
81.25%
1957
Z.H.B.
Holland
Export Pilsner Lager
1/9d
half
bottled
1006.2
1031.6
10
3.30
80.38%
Source:
Whitbread Gravity Book 

Intriguing stuff, eh? Especially as many of today's brands are in there: Stella, Fosters, Heineken, Tennents, Skol (then still called Graham's) and Amstel.

There appears to have been little direct correlation between price and strength. For 1s 9d a half pint bottle you could get Lagers of 3.06%, 3.25%, 3.3%, 3.31%, 3.86%, 4.61%, 4.75% and 4.96% ABV. A bottle of Three Crowns Lager, weighing in at 5.77% ABV, was just 1s 3d. You explain the logic to me. Looks like they were just charging whatever they could get away with. Since, as Campbell states, it was hard for British drinkers to estimate the strength of Lager, it would have been easy for a brewery to take advantage.

Campbell wasn't far off on the alcoholic strengths. Foreign-brewed Lager averaged (at least the examples I have) 4.27% ABV. British-brewed Lagers 3.57% ABV.

Well that's the chapter on beer types finished. Now onto the one on specific beers.

6 comments:

Graham Wheeler said...

A Munich newspaper commenting on British lager said:
Lager is an imitation Continental beer drunk only by refined ladies, people with digestive ailments, tourists, and other weaklings.
Munchen Suddeutsche Zeitung, April 1976.

When I used to visit Germany frequently on business, about that time as it happens, I recall Northern Germans saying very much the same thing about Munich beers.

Pivní Filosof said...

Hmmmm... Interesting to see a Pilsner Urquell with 1036OG, that wouldn't even be desítka, if my maths are right.

Can it have been the now disappeared lighter PU?

Ron Pattinson said...

Pivní Filosof, it would have been a version specially for the British market.

Matt said...

I was reading this myself the other day and wondered when you'd get round to it.

Two bits caught my eye:

"dark lagers of the Munich type have many qualities of light stouts" reminded me of your comparison of helles and dunkles with light and dark milds.

"The decoction method of mashing and very light hopping with bottom fermentation are the general rule. After the first stages of fermentation the beer is left to mature in 'lagers' or storage tanks for as long as a year."

Was this ever the case with British-brewed lager? And when did it it first appear on draught rather than in bottles, in the 60's alongside keg bitter?

Ron Pattinson said...

Matt, Barclay Perkins had a draught Lager in the 1920's. Their WW II price lists include the CO2 tanks for the draught Lager.

Barm said...

Tennent's first Lager brews had a respectable gravity of 1.055, but by 1955 it had fallen to the 4.0%abv it still is today. I wonder when the change occurred; after the First World War like other British beers?