Historical Beer Names

I've been researching old breweries in my area. One in particular, the Darmstaetter Brewery, piqued my interest. According to what I can find, they brewed 4 varieties of beer there, Pilsener, Waldbrau, Tafel and Bayrisch.

I wanted to figure out what "styles" these were. Pilsener and Tafel were simple. Waldbrau turned out to be a hefe-weizen. But I can't seem to find anything about Bayrisch. I'm not as fluent in German as I used to be, but I understand what the word means, I just can't figure out what beer style this might be.

Anyone out there have any perspective on this?

I assume it's a barley lager in the Bavarian style. It could have been a bock, marzen, or pale lager. Without more info, I don't think you can nail the specific style down. It's like the brewery saying they sold a "Belgian" or "British" beer.

This is a guess, but it is likely a Helles. Weinstephaner was the Bavarian State beer for centuries. They were primarily known for producing a helles.

BigB said:

This is a guess, but it is likely a Helles. Weinstephaner was the Bavarian State beer for centuries. They were primarily known for producing a helles.

Click to expand...

I was leaning towards that at first, but they were already selling a pils. That makes me wonder if it was an Amber lager or a dunkel-weizen. It would be the only "dark" beer they brewed which may be an argument for or against.

Joemama474 said:

I was leaning towards that at first, but they were already selling a pils. That makes me wonder if it was an Amber lager or a dunkel-weizen. It would be the only "dark" beer they brewed which may be an argument for or against.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that would be a reasonable theory because it looks like the Brewery was established in 1865. By that time, the pale lagers hadn't really taken a strong foothold in Bavaria. The primary Bavarian beer was a dunkel lager up until the late 1800's. I guess it would really depend on when they actually made the Bayerisch product. I would be interested if you find out for sure. Interesting read about the brewery though. Prost!

While this is by no means conclusive, it seems to lend credence to the possibility that this "Bayrisch" was, in fact a Bayerische Dunkel, a dark lager. And it's a pretty good read, too. http://doctorbeer.com/jay/articles/btdunkel.htm

Excellent read indeed! His essay is well supported with that huge list of citations too. I would have to agree that the most likely conclusion would be that it was what we would call today a Munich Dunkel.

Which is cool. The great-grandson of the brewer lives about 10 miles from me. He's got some memorabilia, I guess. I shot him an e-mail, I'm hoping he gets back to me. I'd like to see what he knows about the old brewery.