Köstritzer - more than Schwarzbier

Proof that Köstritzer was about more than just it's famous Schwarzbier.

And an excuse for not writing anything complicated. Or long.

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/

German beer sales by type and state 2009 – 2010 (part two)

Getting confused by all my parallel series of posts? I am. Modern day Germany, that’s where we are.

As promised we’ll be looking at some more regional styles. And a non-style, alcohol-free beer. In my definition of beer alcohol is an essential ingredient. The most important ingredient, too.

Let’s kick off with that to get it out of the way. Simply put, alcohol-free beer is most popular in the South, surprisingly. Where it has a 4.5 – 5% share. Though the growth in 2010 was lower there than in the Northweast, which seems to be catching up. Seen against a general fall in beer sales, the percentage increases are staggering. In double digits pretty much everywhere. Alcohol-free beer is noticeably less popular in the former DDR, where its market share is less than half of that in the former Bundesrepublik.

Next is the highly regional Helles. Outside of Bavaria it’s not very popular anywhere. Though it does seem to have more fans in the former DDR than in the Northwest. And it’s hugely on the up there – by as much as 42% in some states. I’m surprised in a way that it isn’t more popular there. Helles was the most popular style back in the DDR days. Only in two places did its share decline in 2010: Bavaria and Bremen/Niedersachsen.

Dunkles isn’t hugely popular anywhere. Even in Bavaria, where once it ruled supreme. I’m guessing that in the case of the former DDR, it’s mostly Schwarzbier rather than Bavarian-style Dunkles. Even here, the largest share it manages is a measly 3%. And is in decline in most places. I must say that the future doesn’t look very bright for this class.

That’s me pretty much ausgebullshitted. Nothing left but the table:

German beer sales by type and state 2009 - 2010
	Hell			Schwarz/Dunkel			Alcohol free
	2009	2010	change in %	2009	2010	change in %	2009	2010	change in %
Germany	4.5	4.5	0.2	1.6	1.6	-2.3	3.3	3.7	12.9
Baden-Württenberg	2.4	2.5	6.5	0.7	0.7	1.3	4	4.4	11.3
Bayern	24.3	23.4	-3.9	1.6	1.6	-3.5	4.3	4.7	9.9
Hessen	1	1.1	4.1	1.4	1.4	0.0	4.5	5.1	12.8
Bremen/Niedersachsen	0.7	0.7	-5.8	1.4	1.4	0.3	3.5	4.1	16.7
Nordrhein-Westfalen	0.5	0.5	10.0	1	1	-2.5	3.2	3.7	13.9
Rheinl.-Pfalz/Saarland	0.7	0.8	4.7	0.7	0.7	0.8	4.6	5.5	18.2
Schleswig-Holstein/Hamburg	0.7	0.8	8.4	1.6	1.6	-3.0	2.8	3.3	14.4
Berlin	1.3	1.9	42.1	2.7	2.6	-3.7	3.2	3.5	7.1
Brandenburg	1.9	2.7	42.3	2.5	2.3	-6.0	1.8	2	14.1
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	0.2	0.3	20.4	3.1	3	-5.1	1.7	1.9	8.0
Sachsen	1.8	2.1	16.3	3	2.9	-2.6	2	2	4.7
Sachsen-Anhalt	1.5	2.5	74.2	2.8	2.9	3.2	1.4	1.6	17.7
Thüringen	2.3	2.5	9.2	2.4	2.4	0.3	1.6	1.9	19.5
Source:
Deutscher Brauer-Bund, Bonn

We’ll be looking at styles that are even more regional next time: Kölsch, Alt and Berliner Weisse.

Beer in Berlin, 1859

Enough of Porter. For a day at least. Here are an Englishman's comments on the beer in Berlin in the 1850's. (Taken from "Bentley's miscellany", 1859, pages 418-419).

"Conservatism has many peculiar ways of displaying itself. In Berlin it is shown
by drinking white beer, and ignoring the claims of the Bayerisch, which has almost entirely ousted that pernicious beverage from the market. For our part, we are not surprised a bit, for the beer in North Germany was really atrocious. During our residence there, we suffered from these atrocities in the shape of beer. First, there was Brunswick Mumm - eugh! tasting for all the world like treacle and vinegar badly mixed : then came Schwarzbier, which you were flatteringly told was like English porter, and at which a pauper would turn up his nose; and last came white beer, which was just endurable, and that was all."

His description of Mumm is so eloquent. Vinegar and treacle: a winning combination.
The author's time in Southern Germany had turned him into a lager fan. Or maybe, as he was such a fan of Bock, he was just a pisshead.

"Perhaps, though, the great fault was that you were served by men. After living for years in and around Bavaria, and listening with delight to the "Wos Schoffens" of the pretty beer-girls, as plump and hearty as their barrels, it caused a sudden revulsion to be waited on by a male creature, who talked excruciatingly polite German that set your teeth on edge. But, we still maintain it, the white beer in itself and apart from the waiter, was a mockery, delusion, and a snare. You took a heavy pull, and about a yard of froth adhered to your moustache, and you found that the pretentious Seidel was only half full. Perhaps, though, regard being had to the nature of the beverage, that was a mercy. Still, there are patriots in Berlin who stick to this stuff, when they can procure the delicious Salvator beer!"

Short measures - as most everything else - are nothing new. I was surprised to read that Berliner Weisse (surely what is meant by "white beer") was in decline and seemed close to extinction:

"But the white beer-houses are few and far between in Berlin, and they are already beginning to be regarded as antiquities. Ten years hence and guide-books will describe them with the same reverence as the Coliseum in Rome, or the Palace of the Doges in Venice. Ten years later there will be a case in the Berlin Museum containing the mysterious goblets, representing a "white or a half white," and the so-called "cool blonde." Yet, in our own knowledge, time was when a large class of deep thinkers and clever orators was known in Athens on the Spree by the name of the "white beer Philistines," and the brewers of that beverage were regarded by the thirsty populace as unapproachable Brahmins."

Berliner Weisse, it seems, was only drunk by a few old blokes. Where have I heard that story before?

"Of course a stranger rarely puts an unhallowed foot in these few surviving white beer refuges. If a pedlar or a hurdy-gurdy boy dare to enter, the whole establishment takes up arms to repulse the invader. The guests are all respectable old gentlemen who have met together for years, and play their customary game of cards. But enough - perhaps too much - on so vulgar a subject: we only allude to it as a characteristic of social life in Berlin."

It gives me a little hope for the future of Berliner Weisse. If it's come back from the dead once, maybe it can do it again. Keep your fingers crossed.