Saturday 24 April 2010

London vs. Vienna 1865

Time for more tables? Yes! We'll be focusing on the yesr 1865. Specifically, brewery output in London and Vienna that year.

If you read this blog regularly, you'll be aware that London was the birthplace of industrial brewing. The Porter breweries of the 18th century were the largest and most mechanised ever seen. For a century, continental Europe lagged far behind.

Thanks to the efforts of one Anton Dreher, Vienna was the first continental city where brewing was conducted on a scale approaching that in Britain. Dreher's brewery in Kleinschwechat on the edge of Vienna quickly established itself as the largest on the continent, mostly due to its early adoption of the Bavarian method of brewing. Or bottom-fermentation, as we know it.

Let's compare the output of the breweries of London and Vienna in 1865.

First London:


Output of London breweries in 1865
brewery barrels hl
Barcaly Perkins 415,142 679,405
Whitbread 236,418 386,912
Truman, Hanbury 537,189 879,142
Reid and Co 277,757 454,566
Mann, Crossman & Paulin 203,117 332,413
Total 1,669,623 2,732,438
Source:
The British Brewing Industry, 1830-1980 T. R. Gourvish & R.G. Wilson, pages 610-611



Now Vienna:


Output of Viennese breweries in 1865
place output (Austrian eimer) output (hl)
Kleinschwechat 408,080 230,995
Liesing 275,200 155,778
St. Marx 209,600 118,645
Brunn 164,694 93,225
Hüttendorf 139,477 78,951
Jedlersee 153,140 86,685
Ottakring 150,270 85,061
Simmering 123,750 70,049
Nussdorf 99,500 56,322
Wien (Lichtenthal) 90,550 51,256
Wien (Ungargasse) 84,300 47,718
Schöllenhof 78,540 44,458
Währing 74,640 42,250
Fünfhaus 72,200 40,869
Gaudenzdorf 65,180 36,895
Grinzing 63,240 35,797
Neudorf 63,150 35,746
Döbling 47,600 26,944
Hernals 39,800 22,529
Leopoldsdorf 39,500 22,359
Perchtoldsdorf 38,241 21,646
Wien (Margarethen) 33,500 18,963
Total 2,514,152 1,423,142
Average 114,279.64 64,688.26
Source:
“Bericht über der Welt_Ausstellung zu Paris im Jahre 1867, volume 7”, 1868, page 126. 

Dreher's brewery was still smaller than the largest in London,. but was closing in on Whitbread.

Of course, Vienna's breweries were later overshadowed by those of Bohemia and Bavaria. Their role in the development of European brewing, in particular the spread of bottom-fermentation, has been largely forgotten. Much as the Viennese style of amber Lager has retreated into obscurity. Shame.

2 comments:

Ed said...

Vienna lagar is big in Mexico isn't it?

Ron Pattinson said...

Ed, well that's what they say. I'm not so sure I'd classify Modelo Negra as a Vienna. Something else we can blame Michael Jackson for.

My guess would be that it was origninally intended as a Münchner. Some Swedeish "Bayerskt"beers are about the same colour and that's what they're meant to be.