Tuesday 2 August 2011

Irish brewery numbers

Time for more stuff about Ireland. Numbers. Haven't had many of them for a while. Irish brewery numbers, lets go with that.

Where to start? How about the 19th century. I've loads of good numbers for that. If you're good I'll move on to the 20th century, for which I've even more numbers. No, don't thank me. It's my contribution to the well-being of the world.

I know you're really excited to see them, so here they are in all their numbery glory . . . numbers:


Irish breweries and their output 1820 - 1901
Year malt consumed (thousands of bushels) No. of breweries estimated output (barrels) average output per brewery UK beer production (barrels) % brewed in Ireland
1820 1,321 660,500
1821 1,205 602,500
1822 1,396 698,000
1823 1,498 749,000
1824 1,366 683,000
1825 1,337 668,500
1826 1,411 705,500
1827 1,513 756,500
1828 1,403 701,500
1829 1,343 671,500
1830 1,131 565,500
1831 1,494 215 747,000 3,474
1832 1,543 216 771,500 3,572
1833 1,683 231 841,500 3,643
1834 2,005 240 1,002,500 4,177
1835 1,830 245 915,000 3,735
1836 2,033 251 1,016,500 4,050
1837 1,801 248 900,500 3,631
1838 1,934 243 967,000 3,979
1839 1,814 231 907,000 3,926
1840 1,279 191 639,500 3,348 16,057,591 3.98%
1841 1,030 166 515,000 3,102 15,936,421 3.23%
1842 993 145 496,500 3,424 14,680,815 3.38%
1843 1,010 138 505,000 3,659 14,431,267 3.50%
1844 1,095 122 547,500 4,488 14,294,118 3.83%
1845 1,277 115 638,500 5,552 14,790,006 4.32%
1846 1,465 118 732,500 6,208 15,062,383 4.86%
1847 1,233 109 616,500 5,656 16,415,675 3.76%
1848 1,280 101 640,000 6,337 14,649,395 4.37%
1849 1,205 96 602,500 6,276 14,691,734 4.10%
1850 1,165 95 582,500 6,132 15,478,569 3.76%
1851 1,268 97 634,000 6,536
1852 1,266 98 633,000 6,459
1853 1,308 97 654,000 6,742
1854 1,315 101 657,500 6,510
1855 1,376 104 688,000 6,615
1856 1,542 107 771,000 7,206
1857 2,084 104 1,042,000 10,019 17,984,773 5.79%
1858 1,918 102 959,000 9,402
1859 2,373 109 1,186,500 10,885
1860 2,280 109 1,140,000 10,459 20,340,096 5.60%
1861 2,120 93 1,060,000 11,398
1862 2,436 108 1,218,000 11,278
1863 2,365 104 1,182,500 11,370 20,081,408 5.89%
1864 2,536 95 1,268,000 13,347 21,360,461 5.94%
1865 2,749 90 1,374,500 15,272 22,546,889 6.10%
1866 3,001 91 1,500,500 16,489 25,388,600 5.91%
1867 3,005 87 1,502,500 17,270
1868 2,872 81 1,436,000 17,728
1869 3,001 80 1,500,500 18,756
1870 3,403 80 1,701,500 21,269
1871 3,127 79 1,563,500 19,791 26,431,760 5.92%
1872 3,051 74 1,525,500 20,615
1873 3,520 74 1,760,000 23,784
1874 3,558 68 1,779,000 26,162
1875 3,816 65 1,908,000 29,354 31,014,381 6.15%
1876 3,935 62 1,967,500 31,734
1877 4,108 61 2,054,000 33,672
1878 3,985 59 1,992,500 33,771
1879 3,662 56 1,831,000 32,696
1880 3,966 53 1,983,000 37,415 30,742,649 6.45%
1881 3,779 52 1,889,500 36,337 27,352,361 6.91%
1882 4,207 54 2,103,500 38,954
1883 5,157 48 2,578,500 53,719
1884 4,299 43 2,149,500 49,988
1885 4,291 42 2,145,500 51,083 27,986,493
1886 4,187 43 2,093,500 48,686
1887 4,411 42 2,205,500 52,512
1888 4,477 42 2,238,500 53,298
1889 4,732 40 2,366,000 59,150
1890 4,696 40 2,348,000 58,700 30,808,315 7.62%
1891 4,905 41 2,452,500 59,817
1892 4,904 39 2,452,000 62,872
1893 5,078 36 2,539,000 70,528
1894 4,916 36 2,458,000 68,278
1895 5,071 37 2,535,500 68,527 34,404,287 7.37%
1896 5,258 37 2,629,000 71,054
1897 5,114 38 2,557,000 67,289
1898 5,443 40 2,721,500 68,038
1899 5,552 39 2,776,000 71,179
1900 5,641 38 2,820,500 74,224 37,105,042 7.60%
1901 5,978 38 2,989,000 78,658
Sources:
"The Dynamics of the international brewing industry since 1800" by Richard George Wilson, Terence Richard Gourvish, 1998, pages 121 - 122
“Bericht über der Welt Ausstellung zu Paris im Jahre 1867, volume 7”, 1868, page 119.
"Statistics of British commerce" by Braithwaite Poole, 1852, page 6.
Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 110

You're expecting some sort of analysis, I bet. Er, steady decline in the number of breweries, apart from a small blip in the 1850's and 1860's. Increase in output, so obviously an increase in the average output per brewery.

The 20th century is even more exciting. It's coming soon. (As soon as I've copied all the numbers from the Brewers' Almanack.)

2 comments:

Martyn Cornell said...

I'd really love to see those brewery figures broken down to at least province level (Ulster, Leinster, Munster, Connaught), if not county: and it's very interesting that production falls off a cliff in 1840, five years before the Great Famine, and actually rose in 1846, when the Famine was getting into its stride.

Ron Pattinson said...

Martyn, I do have regional figures for some years. Not sure if they are the right ones, though. Despite spending several weeks trawling through parliamentary papers.

The brewing industry was concentrated in the larger towns in the East and the South: Dublin, Cork, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Waterford and Limerick. (Shit, the last one is in the West.) How hard were these areas hit?