Hop usage in WW II

I can't help checking things, when I have the information available. There's something from yesterday's post that I just had to check.

I'll remind you, in case you've forgotten already:

"Consumption of hops by brewers was cut in June, 1941, under instructions of the Ministry of Food, by 20% of the rate used per standard barrel."
1955 Brewers' Almanack, page 64.

I've enough WW II brewing records to be able to check this easily enough.Through the medium of Whitbread and Barclay Perkins.

Let's start with Whitbread. There's something you wouldn't expect. Taking into account its lower gravity, their Mild was more heavily hopped than their Bitter. Now isn't that weird? Even after the hopping rate had been knocked down by 26%, the Mild was still more heavily hopped than the Bitter.

It looks to me as if Whitbread has reduced its overall hop usage by 20%, but not evenly across all their beers.  In 1939, Whitbread brewed 232,453 barrels of Mild and 51,643 barrels of Bitter. That's a ratio of more than four to one. If you take into account the different quantity of each brewed, the reduction comes out to almost bang on 20%. As this table demonstrates:

beer	barrels	hops lb/brl	lbs hops used	total hops used PA and XX	% decrease in hops used
PA	50,740	1.11	56,321
XX	232,453	0.98	227,804	284,125
PA	50,740	1	50,740
XX	232,453	0.76	176,664	227,404	19.96%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/107 and LMA/4453/D/01/108

Now let's turn our attention to Barclay Perkins. I'll be honest. I can make no sense out of their numbers. For four of their beers - A, BS, LS and X - the hopping rate increased. Only IPA and KK and the rate decreased. As their biggest seller, X Ale, had its rate go up by almost 30%, I can see no way it could have been compensated for by a big drop in another beer. I have no explanation for this.

Whitbread hopping rates
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	hops lb. standard barrel	% decrease lb/standard brl
6th Feb	1941	PA	Pale Ale	1042.9	1015.0	3.69	65.03%	6.54	1.11	1.43
11th Oct	1941	PA	Pale Ale	1042.5	1011.5	4.10	72.94%	5.62	1.00	1.29	9.76%
1st Feb	1941	XX	Mild	1029.7	1008.5	2.80	71.38%	8.10	0.98	1.82
10th Oct	1941	XX	Mild	1031.2	1009.0	2.94	71.15%	6.38	0.76	1.34	26.26%
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number LMA/4453/D/01/108

Barclay Perkins hopping rates
Date	Year	Beer	Style	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	hops lb. standard barrel	% decrease lb/ standard brl
11th Apr	1941	A	Mild	1028.7	1008.0	2.74	72.12%	5.00	0.56	1.08
13th Jul	1942	A	Mild	1027.3	1007.0	2.69	74.36%	5.62	0.67	1.34	-24.09%
4th Jun	1941	BS	Stout	1044.7	1015.0	3.92	66.41%	6.00	1.04	1.28
25th Jun	1942	BS	Stout	1041.4	1015.0	3.49	63.77%	6.40	1.26	1.68	-30.86%
1st May	1941	IPA (bottling)	IPA	1036.9	1007.5	3.89	79.69%	6.00	1.00	1.49
7th May	1942	IPA (bottling)	IPA	1031.3	1007.0	3.21	77.64%	5.61	0.74	1.31	12.23%
17th Apr	1941	KK (trade)	Strong Ale	1051.4	1015.0	4.81	70.80%	7.50	2.07	2.22
11th May	1942	KK (trade)	Strong Ale	1043.3	1012.0	4.14	72.29%	6.76	1.22	1.55	29.81%
8th Apr	1941	LS	Stout	1040.5	1015.0	3.37	62.97%	6.00	0.97	1.32
13th May	1942	LS	Stout	1033.5	1012.0	2.84	64.18%	6.00	0.88	1.45	-9.70%
10th Apr	1941	X	Mild	1031.8	1007.0	3.28	77.96%	5.00	0.63	1.09
11th Jul	1942	X	Mild	1028.7	1007.5	2.80	73.87%	5.60	0.73	1.39	-28.05%
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives document number ACC/2305/1/624.