Dortmunder Export or Dortmunder is a pale lager

Pale lager

Pale lager is a very pale to golden-coloured beer with a well attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid 19th century when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brewing techniques back to the Spaten Brewery in Germany and applied it...

 that originated in the then industrial city of Dortmund

Dortmund

Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....

 in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Originally brewed by Dortmunder Union in 1873, this soft pilsner style beer became very popular with industrial workers, and was responsible for Dortmunder Union becoming Germany's largest brewery and Dortmund having the highest concentration of breweries in Germany. With the decline of heavy industry in the area, the sales of Dortmunder also declined until, by 1994, the Dortmund Union brewery had shut down, and merged with several other Dortmund breweries to form Brinkhoff's Brewery.

History

Dortmund was one of the earliest commercial brewing centres in Germany, establishing itself as a major brewing city which exported its beers to the neighbouring Westphalia

Westphalia

Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...

n cities. The Dortmunder breweries originally brewed a wheat based, dark coloured, short fermented beer. However, in 1873, when the golden coloured, pale barley based, slow fermented beer as brewed in Pilsen and known as Pilsener

Pilsener

Pilsner is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the city of Pilsen , Bohemia, in today's Czech Republic, where it has been developed since 1842, when a bottom-fermented beer was first produced. The original Pilsner Urquell beer is produced there today.-Origin:Until the mid-1840s, most ...

, became popular, several of the local breweries grouped together under the name Dortmunder Union to produce their own pale lager under the guidance of the brewmaster Fritz Brinkhoff. There were originally two varieties: Lagerbier and the slightly stronger Export at around 5.5% abv

Alcohol by volume

Alcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage .The ABV standard is used worldwide....

. The weaker version proved less popular and was eventually dropped.

After WW II, Export was the most popular type of beer in Germany until 1970, when it was supplanted by Pils. Its fortunes have revived a little since its low point of the late 1990s. In 2008, just under 10% of the beer sold in German shops was Export.

Description

The beer from Dortmund is a pale lager

Pale lager

Pale lager is a very pale to golden-coloured beer with a well attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid 19th century when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brewing techniques back to the Spaten Brewery in Germany and applied it...

 influenced by the golden beer from Pilsen known as Pilsner, though is mainly labelled as Dortmunder Export. Like all other pale lagers the beer is a pale gold colour, with a moderate bitterness from the noble hops, a lean, well attenuated

Attenuation (brewing)

In brewing attenuation is the percentage that measures the conversion of sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide by the fermentation process. The percentage is calculated by comparing weight or specific gravity of the extract before and after fermentation....

 body, and a crisp carbonation. The local water contains a fairly high amount of sulfate

Sulfate

In inorganic chemistry, a sulfate is a salt of sulfuric acid.-Chemical properties:...

, which gives the beer's taste a slight element of sulfur and bring out the hops – see Burtonisation. It also contains more calcium carbonate

Calcium carbonate

Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rocks in all parts of the world, and is the main component of shells of marine organisms, snails, coal balls, pearls, and eggshells. Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime,...

 (chalk) than average which tends to give a sharpness to the flavour of the hops. Brewers use less hops to avoid the harsh hop notes, giving the beers a subtle emphasis on the malt flavours.

Dortmund style beers

Fred Eckhardt

Fred Eckhardt

Fred Eckhardt is an American brewer, homebrewing advocate and publicist. He writes about brewed beverages—beer and sake, and wrote the 1989 book, The Essentials of Beer Style...

 in A Treatise on Lager Beers published in 1969, set the scene for the view that Dortmunder is a distinctive enough pale lager to be classed as a separate beer style. Jackson

Michael Jackson (writer)

Michael Jackson was an English writer and journalist. He was the author of several influential books about beer and whisky.-Life:...

, and Roger Protz have continued this trend, though it has been with a certain faint heart, and an unease at pinning down exactly the distinctive nature of the beer. Brewers outside of Germany who brew beers they term Dortmunder will tend to brew a pale lager with a soft, rounded character.

Beers described as Dortmunder or Dortmunder Export are also brewed in Denmark, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Canada, and the US, such as Dortmunder Gold by Great Lakes Brewing Company

Great Lakes Brewing Company

Great Lakes Brewing Company is a Cleveland, Ohio-based regional brewery and brewpub, which has been in operation since 1988. The brewery has been cited as important to Cleveland's local identity. As of 2010, it is the 22nd largest craft brewery and 31st largest overall brewery in the United States...

in Cleveland, Ohio.