History of Schwarzbier III

History of Schwarzbier I, History of Schwarzbier II cont.

In the GDR beer production was standardized.

Doppelcaramel, Schwarzbier and Porter had to comply with the following specifications.

We can see from those values: Schwarzbier was on the sweeter side of todays style but there is some continuity noticeable.

In the early 90s Köstritzer Schwarzbier had 3,5% vol (abv). The brewery was sold to Bitburger Holding (today 3rd largest german brewing company).

early post-GDR Köstritzer Schwarzbier: 3,5% vol 

Until then Schwarzbier made up only 7% of the production volume of the brewery. In 1993 they relaunched Schwarzbier as their primary product with a new branding. This is when todays "style" was created. Alcohol went up to 4,8%vol (11,4°P). Sweetness and probably flavor went further down. In short: Schwarzbier was "pilsnerized" to meet the german pilsner adapted palate. 

The style as it is known today has a fine tradition of almost 21 years!

History of Schwarzbier II

 History of Schwarzbier I cont.

The "Fürstliche Brauerei Köstritz"  (princely brewery Köstritz) was the first to produce a beer under the name "Schwarzbier" but it was not as unique as it seems.

Hollack (Dresden) offered "Deutscher Porter" as "Gesundheitsbier" (source)

Schwarzbier shared nearly every quality with the beers named "Deutscher Porter" (german porter) except the name. 

Deutscher Porter was an english inspired beer of cause: The high original gravity as well as the black color facilitated by black malt or caramel color.

But like Schwarzbier it was early on advertised as a healthy beer. The less alcohol and the more residual extract the better.

Schwarzbier was just another name for german porter. The owner of the brewery was an aristocratical manorial lord, loyal to the Reich and the Reichskanzler.

The coat of arms of the principality "Reuß" was printed on every label.

They tried to establish a precious and royal image in order to find their way into the parlors of the upper class .

Iron Schwarzbier from Oettler Zeitz

Under such self-complacent and probably nationalistic circumstances it's no wonder that they preferred to sell a new beer under a german name. Schwarzbier fits better into such a traditional branding than "Deutscher Porter".

Ärztlich empfohlen (recommended by physicians) source 

 The name "Schwarzbier" was copied by other breweries in the region around Köstritz like in Tauchlitz (sighting distance from Köstritz), Gera and Zeitz.

Schwarzbier from Gera, design inspired by Köstritzer

In this time of upcoming anti-alcoholism many breweries offered similar brews. "Eisenbier" (iron beer), "Caramel Bier", "Extraktbier", "Kraft Bier" (tonic/strength beer) and so on. All had in common relatively low alcohol and high residual extract. Mostly dark to black but there was also pale wheat based beers.

Caramel-Bier, Naumann Brewery Leipzig, for Women and Children

One more point to make the connection between porter or Schwarzbier and healthiness:

Around 1900 the by far most important competitor of beer was coffee. It was perceived as nourishing, vitalizing and healthful. It was black.

Why should coffee be nourishing? Because it is black. Like coal.

It is carbonized and therefore it contains carbon which is combusted in the body! Besides it detoxicates the body like activated charcoal!

The "style" separated into "Deutscher Porter", "Doppelcaramell" and "Schwarzbier" all three were produced almost exclusively in the GDR. There was also "Malzbier" in western Germany.

tbc.

Kufenbier, Erntebier, Märzbier

"Bier-Brauer" Weigel (1698) source

Reading old texts about brewing in northern germany one stumbles upon beers called "Märzbier", "Kufenbier", "Erntebier", "Sommerbier" or "obergäriges Lagerbier".

"Märzbier" (march beer): is brewed in march when the temperatures allow to brew a clean and durable top fermenting beer that keeps for months.

"Kufenbier": the beer was lagered in large wooden barrels called "Kufen".

"Erntebier" (harvest beer) and "Sommerbier" (summer beer): Summer and harvest time are busy and bad time for brewing if you have no efficient cooling device and cool fermentation cellar so you brew a strong and durable beer in spring and serve it in the summer or at harvest time.

"Erntebier" can also be a lower alcohol beer brewed fresh during the harvest time (for consumption at work).

"Erntebier" was also a name for the celebration when harvesting was finished.

All those terms describe top fermenting but lagered beers ("obergärige Lagerbiere").

It's a stronger version of an ordinary "braunbier".

"double the amount of malt  and triple the amount of hops". Braunbier with 1- 2 %vol. was made for prompt consumption. 

Knaus (1575) calls "Merze Bier" from Berlin and Magdeburg as a superior brew compared with the beers brewed in summer. During the hot season they had problems with chilling, fermentation temperatures, and cleanliness.

The Köstritzer "doppelbier" (before it was called english) can be assumed to be a "Obergäriges Lagerbier". If you want a great description how to brew it read Munz (1840) "Das Bierbrauen in allen seinen Zweigen".

But remember this type of beer is all about the process of lagering, it's no recipe. Every beer can potentially be a "lager beer" if it keeps its qualities (or improve) over a few months at cellar temps. On the other hand not every "Doppelbier" is also lagered.

Characteristics:

• top fermenting
• stronger in alcohol (5%+?)
• high bitterness
• amber to brown in color
• continental Hops
• stored at cellar temps for at least 8 weeks.

Eventualities:

• relatively cold and slow fermentation (more neutral flavor)
• Wheatmalt (Märzen-weisse), or other cereals or refined beet sugar or honey (farmhouse Erntebier...)
• lagering characteristics (aged flavors, low FG, wood aged, sour notes)
• brettanomyces
• spices
• smoke
• dry hopping
• pitched barrel

For commercial brews that go into the right direction I would try something like Uerige Sticke and Pinkus Alt.

Gose and coriander

Leipziger Gose is a spiced and soured wheat beer.

Gose brewery in Döllnitz around 1860 (source) ... today

The two locally produced ones contain coriander.
Which is supposedly thrown in the brewcettle at flameout. 

But why, since when and where did the use coriander or other spices?

lets try to sum up some facts:

1. There is no data about coriander in the "Goslarer Gose"

2. According to Heinrich Steckhan in the 19th century they did use wormwood and cinnamon (they infused a bag containing the spices with the still hot? wort to make their premium-style Gose "Frehmtenbestekrug")
source

3. Hermbstädt (1826) does not mention any spices at all. (Goslarsche and Sandersleber Gose)
source

4. Zimmermann (1842) writes about coriander as a late edition for "Weizenlagerbier" (with cloves and cinnamon), for Burton ale (with grains of paradise), for "Weißes Bitterbier" (white bitter beer) a pale top fermenting beer made from all barley in bavaria and for bock.
source

5. Armann (1859) mentions coriander besides cinnamon and cloves as an addition (during fermentation) for "Weizenlagerbier" (wheat lager beer)which he distinguishes from Gose and Broihan.

source

6. Leuchs (1867) describes coriander as a valued beer-spice, especially for "Bock".
source

7. According to Adolf Goedecke (2005) owner of the Döllnitz manor, the original recipe contains different spices of which coriander is only one. The Goedecke-recipe is only one of probably dozens of differing recipes brewed once in and around Leipzig, but it was selling well. It was possibly created by Phillip Ledermann who came to Döllnitz from Goslar in 1823.
source

German Kriek

Just another victim of the german "brausteuergesetz" (brewing tax law).

cherry beer 1731

"Cherry beer

This is a useful beer in the summer, because it is mellow and pleasant to the warm stomach

and it has a nice color and a dulcet taste

If the kernels are crushed it will be a pervading and diuretic beer.

This is healthier than if the cherries are infused as a whole."

source

History of Schwarzbier

The history of this style is closely bound to the brewery of Köstritz. Located in the village Köstritz (later Bad Köstritz) in Thuringia in the valley of the river Elster. Near to the town Gera (10 km) and not too far from Jena (40 km).

advertisement at 1900 (Jenaische Zeitung) (This long-famous beer, which, because of its high content of malt- and wort-extract and low alcohol, recommended especially for children, anemic, women in childbed, breastfeeding mothers, and convalescents of each type, by high medical authorities, distributed in Jena by .... )

The beer from Köstritz was well known in the surrounding towns (later also in Berlin and Leipzig) since centuries. The brewery was primarily brewing for export comparable with breweries in Einbeck, Torgau etc.

Like most export breweries, they produced stonger beer than local breweries in order to make them durable for transport but also meeting the demand for stronger beer (most local brews can be expected as pretty low in alcohol). So they offered a luxury good.

when they digged a cellar / lagering cave ("Höhler") back in 1691 and starting to offer "cave-beer" ("Höhlerbier") probably aiming to produce a high quality luxury-good that would yield good prices.

It must be assumed that they used top fermenting yeast but there is no evidence.
Surely  they made an early form of "Lagerbier", especially for the region. It is said that they used the cave to store the beer from autumn to spring in order to kick of a well lagered beer in the hot months.

End of the 18th century is when it became real fun.

This is what what the archives say about beer prices in Gotha (100 km from Köstritz):

1782. Auf dem hiesigen Rathskeller sind fremde Biere, als: Bamberger und Schlaizer zu haben
1784. Weizenbier die Kanner 1 gr. 1 pf., einfaches Bier die Kanne 10pf. (Nachricht aus dem Thurmknopfe der Margarethenkirche.)
1784. Englisch Bier, die Bouteille 10gr.
1794. Auf dem Ratskeller: Köstritzer Höhlerbier die steinerne Bout. 2. gr. 3. pf., doppelt oder englisch Köstritzer in gläsernen Maasbouteillen 3 gr. 6 pf.
1900. Auf dem Ratskeller: Breyhan; Bamberger Bier in steinernen Bout. à 4 gr.; Köstritzer Höhler pr. Bout. 2 gr. 6 pf., Köstritzer Englisch in Glasbouteillen à 4 gr. (für die Bout. außerdem 3 gr. Einsaz).
1812. Köstritzer Englisch Bier in Glasbouteillen à 4 gr.
1816. Bourton-Ale die Bouteille 14 gr.
1821. Einfach Bier die Kanne 1 gr. 2 pf. Weizenbier die Kanne 1 gr. 8 pf.

The "englisch Bier" (english beer) takes the place of the earlier "doppelbier" (double beer) from Köstritz.
As there was kind of a hype for english beers early in the 19th century this is not quite shocking, but the most known printed recipes are published after 1794.

there was some discussion on the same topic.

English beer was imported (even more to Bremen, Berlin and Hamburg than to Gotha).
There was porter and ale (or like the germans called it "oel" or "öl" which means oil).

Bottle 0,33l (1880-1900)

supposedly the guys in Köstritz simply tried to remake those imported beers as they edged into their premium market. 

Around the same time (1789) it is documented that Goethe drank "dunkel- oder hellbraunes Köstritzer". (dark brown and pale brown beer form Köstritz)

The Brewmaster Johann Philipp Christian Muntz reports in his books about brewing in Köstritz (1811-1832). He does mention "Englisch Bier" but there is no exact recipe.
He gives grand attention to precise malting and kilning and reports to use one or two types of malt per beer. No black malt of cause but highly kilned malt (like todays munich).
He used a kiln with smoke-separation and wedge wire floors.
For strong beer like english he uses two kinds of the best quality hops from germany (those from Spalt are the strongest he notes).
All work was done manually with workers carrying around tubs with wort e.g. in the cellar where they did fermentation and lagering year-round. 

Like other documents of the time he uses the term "Englisch Bier" like a synonym for strong beer. Seems like english "Ale" and "Porter" was the "Bock" of the north before the bavarian beers became dominant in the 19th century.

It is not clear to me if they tried to copy more Ale or Porter. probably this beer was dark brown, stronger than usual beer maybe 5% abv or more. and well hopped.
(normal beer was around 2% abv, stronger beer like Quedlinburger Gose around 4%)

In the 1830-40s the köstritzer brewery had reportedly at least 3 types of beer with 8,3% 6,8% and 2,4%vol.


1874 Carl Holomoucky a brewmaster from Bohemia was engaged in Köstritz.

1878 they offered: a pale lager beer, a bavarian (dark) lager beer and "Schwarzbier" probably also (bottom fermented) lager beer.
But there are differing accounts on bottom or top fermenting.

first known Schwarzbier label around 1900?

The dark lager was called "Blume des Elsterthales" (flower of the Elster valley) but there are also labels with "Kranichbräu" (Crane-brew (the bird))
The pale lager was also called "Sonnenquell" (sun spring)
They had to face growing competition from newly founded industrial breweries which produced lagers with the bavarian method as well as bavarian beer that was imported via the new railroads. So they invested in marketing and crazy made-up names.

I claim that "Schwarzbier" had not much to do with "Englisch Bier".

1893 they produced 20.000 hl, half of that was Schwarzbier (top seller). Their premium product of the time was the bavarian-style dark lager.

slogan registered as trademark in 1927

probably in the 1880s they began to advertise "Schwarzbier" as an healthy "Hausgetränk für  blutarme und stillende Mütter" (house-drink for anaemics and breastfeeding mothers).
The "reine hopfenreiches Malzbier" (malt-beer pure and rich in hops) had in 1890 around 3,5%vol in alcohol. It was probably very sweet but bitter (SG 14°P FG 7°P). Being low in alcohol became a positive selling point for a medical beer.

this label was used with minor changes from 1910-20 until around the 1960s

As the technique of roasting malt (in a drum roaster) for coloring was known in the time, I suppose they used black malt to gain a black color. Zimmerman offers in his book from 19842 a recipe for "Braunbier" (ordinary brown topfermented beer) as well as a porter recipe both with roasted malt.
They used to produce their own color malts so I don't know if it was of strong rost-bitter flavor. Maybe they tried to reduce harsh burnt flavors by roasting mildly or by roasting huskless grains like wheat but I am pretty sure there must have been much more roasty flavor compared to todays Schwarzbier.

How would it have tasted compared with todays Köstritzer?
- sweeter (and thicker) - roastier - more hop bitterness? - less alcohol

tbc

Gose, Broihan and others around 1600

again from Heinrich Knaust (1614)

Gose and Broihan are both made from wheat. He does not tell anything about proportions of barley. maybe he does not know but he talks about beers made from both barley and wheat at other places (Einbeckisch beer was made from one third wheat).

I think one can say that the proportion of wheat malt was at least 50%.

Gose from Goslar was not as strong as the beer from Hamburg.

"Im Anfange süsse/ aber hernacher mit der Zeit/ gewinnet es/ wie das Hamburger Bier/ einen weinlichen Nachschmack/ unter den Weizen Bieren hat es eine mittel Natur ..." S. 31
(At the beginning sweet but later with time it gains, like the beer from Hamburg, a winelike aftertaste. Under the wheat beers it is of medium nature)

about "Broihane" he tells about the same.

It seems to be a bit stronger but also sweet.

It seems to be well known at the time that wheat beers generally don't store well, and that hops are used for improved storability.

I don't know how long a maturing was necessary to turn Gose into a wine like beer.

What we know is that maturing beers in order to make them wine like was a common thing, e.g. by using old wine barrels.

"Wie man ein Bier wohlgeschmack machen sol/ gleich einem Weine/ ganz natürlich/ sonderlich des Sommers zu trinken.
Nim ein Beerweinfaß/ Darvon man geschencket hat/ geuß das Bier darauff/ fo nimpts den Geschmack des Weins/ von den Beeren an sich/ und wird schön lauter. Die Cöllnischen und Holländischen Biere/ seyn dermassen und also gestalt/ daß sie auch offt von manchen für Wein getruncken werden." S. 64
(How to make a Beer welltasting like a wine, all natural, especially for drinking in summertime.
Take a winebarrel that has already been served, pour the beer on top, it will take the taste of wine, from the berries, and will be nice and clear-
The beers from Cologne and Holland are like that and of such a shape, that many drink them oftentimes for wine)

He also explains one reason for the differences between beers: 

"Mit den Fässern/ darein ein Bier/ das von Gersten Malz gebrawen/ geleget werden soll/ hat ein jeder Ort auch seinen sonderlichen gebrauch/ Etliche legens in gepichte Fässer/ etliche aber nicht/ Das Pech gibt den Bieren zum theil einen newen Geschmack/ wird auch etwas schärfer darvon. Etliche legens in die Weinfässer/ auf den Weinstein/ daß es zum theil einen Geschmack vom Weine darmit kriege."
(With the barrels a beer made from barleymalt is stored in every place has its own manner. Many store it in piched barrels, some dont. The pich gives the beer a new taste, will be somehow sharper/ hot from that. Many store it in winebarrels on the winestone partly resulting in a winelike flavour)

any more evidence for the gose-geuze connection needed?