Average OG of British beer exports 1934 -1949

I'm still on my number jag. Must be something to do with spring. Old man's fancy turning and all that. I've some lovely big fat ones for you. Numbers, I mean.

Standard barrels can be a real pain in the arse. Especially when average gravity moved far away from 1055º. Which meant the difference between standard and bulk barrel numbers becomes greater and less predictable. Most of the export figures I have are in standard barrels. So they relate poorly to the actual amount of beer shipped.

But there is an upside. At least when you get figures in both standard and bulk barrels. Because then you can calculate the average OG. As a standard barrel is 36 gallons with an OG of 1055º, all you need to do is multiply the standard barrels by 55, divide by the number of bulk barrels and add 1000. Bingo: average OG.

The 1955 Brewers' Almanack handily gives the export figures in both bulk and standard barrels for the years 1934 to 1949. Letting me calculate the average export OG. And, as I have the figures for the average OG of beer sold in the UK, I can see just how much stronger export beer was.

One point immediately jumps out a pokes a stick in my eye: the average OG of export beer in the years 1934 to 1939 is very close to the average OG of domestic beer in 1914, which was 1052.8º*. Which confirms something I've long suspected: beer for export continued to be brewed at pre-war strengths. It makes sense. It's what the customers were used to and expected. And the massive increase in beer duty (up from 7s 9d per standard barrel in 1914 to 100s per standard barrel in 1921** - a fourteen-fold increase) didn't apply to exported beer.

You can see how domestic beer averaged about 10 points weaker right through the 1930's. Until WW II intervened and messed things up again.

Average OG of British beer exports 1934 -1949
	bulk barrels	standard barrels	average OG exports	average OG UK	difference
1934	216,293	213,813	1054.37	1040.99	13.38
1935	232,839	224,087	1052.93	1041.06	11.87
1936	325,058	311,663	1052.73	1041.02	11.71
1937	340,757	329,498	1053.18	1041.10	12.08
1938	281,284	271,114	1053.01	1041.02	11.99
1939	283,974	274,272	1053.12	1040.93	12.19
1940	266,766	239,850	1049.45	1040.62	8.83
1941	225,552	191,939	1046.80	1038.51	8.29
1942	94,796	79,364	1046.05	1035.53	10.52
1943	107,019	85,954	1044.17	1034.34	9.83
1944	77,597	63,606	1045.08	1034.63	10.45
1945	130,443	101,058	1042.61	1034.54	8.07
1946	187,418	150,099	1044.05	1034.72	9.33
1947	109,680	85,660	1042.95	1032.59	10.36
1948	205,098	179,120	1048.03	1032.66	15.37
1949	254,147	226,215	1048.96	1033.43	15.53
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 57
Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50

That was fun. We must do it again soon.






* Brewers' Journal 1921, page 246.
** 1928 Brewers' Almanack