Early Investment in Lager Beer Production

Early Investment in Lager Beer Production
The production of lager beer was begun in 1847 by the Copenhagen brewer J.C Jacobsen (who inherited one of the traditional breweries) as the new Carlsberg brewery situated on the outskirts of the city.

Despite earlier experiments elsewhere, Jacobsen was the first to achieve commercial success. Others soon followed his lead.

New lager beer were established in the 1850s – in some cases after the staff had been trained at Carlsberg – and often Jacobson supplied the yeast for the first brewing.

From the beginning, lager beer production was highly profitable.

Even in the late 1870s, when the Danish economy experienced a general recession demand was such that some brewers were forced to ration sales.

The buoyant market, coupled with falling sales of hvidtol, stimulated a significant investment boom in lager beer production during 1878 – 83.

Most of the investment was in Copenhagen which accounted for approximately 75 percent of lager beer output and a slightly smaller share of consumption.

Until 1878 there were only five lager beer breweries in the city, but during the period 1878 – 83 five of the larger old established hvidtol breweries joined then in producing lager beer.

At the same tome Carlsberg invested heavily in additional plant and three further new lager beer breweries were established.

The change in production, even at established breweries, demanded substantial investment, especially in the provision of extensive cool cellars for fermentation and maturing at the correct low temperatures.

By the early 1880s, Carlsberg controlled no less than 46 – 48 per cent of the total Danish lager beer market.

Tuborg, established on 1873 in an attempt to emulate Norwegian successes in exporting bottled strong beer overseas, saw its market share increase from 7 to 9 percent between 1881 ad 1887.

The company’s founder had expected Carlsberg to dominate the domestic market, but rapidly rising demand persuaded the management to specialize in selling barrels of lager beer ready for bottling.

In comparison, Albani, the largest provincial brewery, and together with Carlsberg, the only one to rely exclusively on lager beer production, held 3 – 5 percent of the market.

Most investment around 1880 was into well established lager brewing technologies; more and bigger cellars for fermentation and maturing, more steam boilers and engines.

Carlsberg, however, introduced mechanical cooling in place of natural ice, using steam driven machines made by Carl v. Linde of Augsburg.
At the same times, malting capacity at Carlsberg was increased by the erection of a pneumatic box malting of the type patented in 1878 by Jacobson’s partner, E. Kogsbolle.

The new malting created the need for more barley-drying capacity and in 1878-79 Carlsberg became the first Danish brewery to erect a Noback & Fritze tower drying-kiln.
Early Investment in Lager Beer Production