German export beers in 1900

The Official Catalogue of the Collective Exhibition of the German Industry in Articles of Food at the Paris Exhibition 1900 is a great document. Twenty pages of adverts from German breweries, in English. Despite the slightly odd English in places, you can get an idea of the kinds of beers they had to sell.

Brewers like boasting about the output of their brewhouses. Many of the adverts name a figure, which is great. Sadly they are not all comparable; some of the breweries only state how much of their beer they export, not their total production. Others are still touting for business and only mention their capacity; how much beer they could be making if anyone wanted to buy it.

Two breweries have something in their portfolio called “F.F.”. I’d love to know what that stood for.

I’m fairly sure the brewers who describe their beers as mild and stout weren’t really brewing mild and stout, just using the closest English expressions they could find. Probably they mean pale and dark. Or maybe weak and strong. It’s anybody’s guess. Saloon beer is possibly a translation of the German Schankbier, so maybe a low-gravity product.

Although tomorrow we will have a brewery which did make Deutscher Porter. Watch this space.

Output of a few not necessarily representative German breweries in 1900
Brewery	Output (*capacity **export)	Employees	Types produced/exhibited
Source: Official Catalogue of the Collective Exhibition of the German Industry in Articles of Food at the Paris Exhibition 1900 (Frankfurt, 1900), pp. 100–123.
Actienbrauerei Erlangen	100000*	40	Erlanger Gold (Exquisite light Tablebeer)
Bergschlösschen, Dortmund	–	–	Export lagerbeers, mild (Pilsen) and stout (Munich), F.F. Kaiserbeer
Berliner Weissbier-Brauerei	113000	–	Berlin White Beer
Brauhaus Nürnberg	165613	–	–
Bürgerliches Brauhaus München	250000	300	Export-Beer
C. Breithaupt, Berlin	–	–	Berlin White-Beer
Dortmunder Aktien-Brauerei	150000**	190	light Dortmund Beer, gold coloured Dortmund Beer, dark Dortmund Beer, light bitter (Dortmunder Actien Bitterbier) a surrogate for Bohemian Pilsen.
Erste Culmbacher	206000**	290	“vigorous dark beer”, “Light Saloon Table Beer”
Franziskaner	375000	450	Lager, Märzen, Pale Lager, Bock
Kaiser-Brauerei, Bremen (Beck’s)	–	–	Light coloured Export Beer, the so called “Pilsener”
Ketterer, Pforzheim	28700	–	Light Exportbeer, Dark Lagerbeer
Kochelbräu	8000**	–	Mild and stout Exportbeer, Bockbeer, Märzenbeer
Kulmbacher Rizzibräu	100000	–	–
Löwenbräu, München	594202	770	Dark and light Export-beer, Bock, Märzen
Mönchshof	200000*	–	Stout and mild Kulmbach Beer
Exportbierbrauerei Reichelbräu	135000	–	Strongest Export Beer dark prime quality, F.F. Goldlight Saloon-Beer choicest quality, F.F. Light brown Export-Beer
Spaten	500000	–	Brown and pale Lagerbeer
Tucher, Nürnberg	–	–	Pale and light Beers
Wilhelmshavener Aktien-Brauerei	–	–	Pasteurized Export Beer
Zum Storchen	154700	–	Choicest Bavarian and pale Export Beers

I do like Rizzibräu’s trademark. It seems to say “Drink Rizzi, and you can be as completely pissed as me! Wahey!”

Like Löwenbräu, Reichelbräu from Kulmbach has figures showing its rapid growth over the previous twenty years:

Growth in output of Kulmbacher Reichelbräu, 1880–1900
Source: Official Catalogue of the Collective Exhibition of the German Industry in Articles of Food at the Paris Exhibition 1900 (Frankfurt, 1900), pp. 116.
1880/81	19460
1881/82	27240
1882/83	27480
1883/84	30170
1884/85	39580
1885/86	44880
1886/87	45660
1887/88	49620
1888/89	53050
1889/90	67560
1890/91	79880
1891/92	86470
1892/93	98750
1893/94	106560
1894/95	113500
1895/96	116300
1896/97	118870
1897/98	121370
1898/99	124930
1899/1900	135000