Bit of a specialist subject for me, WW I. Most of the article isn't too bad, if a bit vague at times. But its towards the end here I had the red mist descend. Because he said that Guinness dominated the British Stout market after the war, mostly because restrictions on beer poroduction hadn't applied to Ireland.
Just two slight errors there. First Guinness didn't brush aside all competition after the war. Second, restrictions did apply in Ireland. Not as strict as the ones in the rest of the UK, but restrictions nonetheless.
This is a summary of the restrictions from the final war years:
"April 1 1918: Output for quarter reduced to rate of 11,470,000 standard barrels. The extra 20 per cent. offer withdrawn and 33 1/3 per cent. for munition areas reduced to 10.4 per cent., equal to 1,120,000 barrels, leaving total output at rate of 12,590,000 a year. Conditions changed by provision that average gravity of all beer brewed shall not exceed 1030º for great Britain and 1045º for Ireland, and that no beer shall be brewed below 1010º: and prices fixed at 4d. per pint below 1030º, and 5d. per pint for 1030º to 1034º. Food Controller imposed a special charge of 25s. per standard barrel for a munition beer brewed under his licence. April 23 1918: Duty increased to 50s.Proof Guinness didn't tak over the UK Stout market? Well there's this table:
Jan. 1 1919 : Statutory barrelage increased by 25 per cent., making annual rate of total output 13,260,000 standard barrels. Gravities raised 2º both for Great Britain and Ireland.
Feb. 20 1919 : Food Controller stated that "it is being constantly represented to us from Labour and other organisations that the shortage of beer and spirits is a cause contributing to the unrest in the country. I hope very shortly to be in a position to allow a considerably larger additional output of beer, and of better quality, than that recently sanctioned."
April 1 1919 : Beer duty raised to 70s. Statutory barrelage increased by 50 per cent., and gravity raised to 1040º in Great Britain. Special charge of 25s. per barrel for munition beer abolished as from April 30 1919.
May 23 1919 : Statutory barrelage further increased by 45 per cent., bringing total output up to rate of 26,000,000 standard barrels a Year. July 1 1919: All restriction on volume of output removed, and average permitted gravity increased in Great Britain to 1044º, and in Ireland to 1051º."
"The Brewers' Almanack 1928" pages 100 - 101.
Guinness Extra Stout sales 1912-1930 (barrels)
|
|||||
Year
|
Britain
|
Ireland
|
total
|
UK Production
|
% Guinness
|
1912
|
913,659
|
674,868
|
1,588,527
|
36,476,000
|
2.50%
|
1913
|
1,022,077
|
736,563
|
1,758,640
|
36,296,000
|
2.82%
|
1914
|
1,070,814
|
731,511
|
1,802,325
|
37,558,767
|
2.85%
|
1915
|
1,122,784
|
641,346
|
1,764,130
|
34,765,780
|
3.23%
|
1916
|
1,135,902
|
581,577
|
1,717,479
|
32,110,608
|
3.54%
|
1917
|
621,374
|
369,201
|
990,575
|
30,163,988
|
2.06%
|
1918
|
613,295
|
347,753
|
961,048
|
19,085,413
|
3.21%
|
1919
|
1,029,235
|
565,870
|
1,595,105
|
23,264,533
|
4.42%
|
1920
|
1,732,881
|
798,493
|
2,531,374
|
35,047,947
|
4.94%
|
1921
|
1,591,908
|
786,688
|
2,378,596
|
34,504,570
|
4.61%
|
1922
|
1,254,920
|
724,894
|
1,979,814
|
30,178,731
|
4.16%
|
1923
|
1,205,468
|
696,582
|
1,902,050
|
25,850,701
|
4.66%
|
1924
|
1,315,325
|
640,974
|
1,956,299
|
27,381,316
|
4.80%
|
1925
|
1,347,174
|
583,730
|
1,930,904
|
28,665,729
|
4.70%
|
1926
|
1,215,179
|
544,008
|
1,759,187
|
28,524,797
|
4.26%
|
1927
|
1,203,003
|
520,923
|
1,723,926
|
26,824,387
|
4.48%
|
1928
|
1,120,955
|
508,483
|
1,629,438
|
27,064,583
|
4.14%
|
1929
|
1,213,481
|
508,158
|
1,721,639
|
26,329,639
|
4.61%
|
1930
|
1,380,691
|
493,669
|
1,874,360
|
26,936,316
|
5.13%
|
Sources:
Statistical Handbook of the British Beer & Pub Association 2005,
p. 7
Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 110
Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50
“A Bottle of Guinness please” by David Hughes, pages
276-279.
Note:
UK production figures adjusted to include Guinness output for years 1922-1930
|
That doesn't look like Guinness swept all before it in the 1920's. Their market share was pretty stable throughout the immediate postwar period.
This table compares sales in Whitbread pubs of their own Porters and Stouts and Guinness and Whitbread.
Whitbread sales of
Porter & Stout 1929 – 1938
(barrels)
|
|||
Whitbread Porter & Stout
|
Guinness & Bass
|
% Guinness & Bass
|
|
1929
|
85,779
|
45,595
|
34.71%
|
1930
|
151,008
|
50,064
|
24.90%
|
1931
|
143,619
|
45,245
|
23.96%
|
1932
|
126,467
|
37,977
|
23.09%
|
1933
|
121,436
|
39,192
|
24.40%
|
1934
|
122,220
|
41,528
|
25.36%
|
1935
|
123,269
|
41,773
|
25.31%
|
1936
|
123,880
|
41,344
|
25.02%
|
1937
|
127,374
|
41,353
|
24.51%
|
1938
|
127,575
|
39,077
|
23.45%
|
Sources:
Whitbread archive
document number LMA/4453/D/02/16
Whitbread brewing
records
|
It's clear that Whitbread's own Stout outsold Guinness by a factor of at least three to one (that's assuming there's almost no Bass in the combined Guinness and Bass figure) and possibly as much as five or six to one.
Maybe that was just Whitbread. Let's take a look at how many Stouts were being brewed in the UK in the 1930's. Here's a random selection from a single year, 1935:
British Stouts from 1935 | |||||||||
Brewer | Beer | Price | size | package | Acidity | OG | FG | ABV | App. Attenuation |
Allsopp | Milk Stout | 9d | half | bottled | 0.06 | 1049.3 | 1013.8 | 4.61 | 72.01% |
Anglo Bavarian | Stout | 6.75d | pint | bottled | 0.07 | 1053 | 1019.8 | 4.29 | 62.64% |
Ansell | Tonic Stout | 8d | pint | bottled | 0.07 | 1050.5 | 1011 | 5.14 | 78.22% |
Ansell | Milk Stout | 5.5d | half | bottled | 0.07 | 1060.7 | 1018.1 | 5.53 | 70.18% |
Barclay Perkins | Stout | pint | bottled | 0.11 | 1051 | 1018.2 | 4.24 | 64.31% | |
Barclay Perkins | Imperial Stout | 6d to 9d | pint | bottled | 0.13 | 1061.8 | 1014.2 | 6.20 | 76.97% |
Barclay Perkins | Stout | 8d | pint | draught | 0.14 | 1058 | 1012.2 | 5.97 | 78.97% |
Cannon Brewery | Cannon Stout | pint | bottled | 1041 | 1013.4 | 3.57 | 67.32% | ||
Charrington | Toby Stout | pint | bottled | 0.06 | 1044 | 1016.5 | 3.55 | 62.50% | |
Charrington | Anchor Stout | 7d | pint | bottled | 0.06 | 1035 | 1014.1 | 2.70 | 59.71% |
Courage | Stout | 8d | pint | bottled | 1048.9 | ||||
Courage | Stout | 7d | pint | bottled | 1036.5 | ||||
Eldridge Pope | Double Stout | pint | bottled | 0.07 | 1044.2 | 1013.5 | 3.98 | 69.46% | |
Fremlin | Milk Stout | 8d | pint | bottled | 0.06 | 1048.8 | 1020.2 | 3.69 | 58.61% |
Fremlin | Oatmeal Stout | 7d | pint | bottled | 0.06 | 1041 | 1015.3 | 3.32 | 62.68% |
Friary Holroyd | Double Stout | 7d | pint | bottled | 0.06 | 1043 | 1017.2 | 3.33 | 60.00% |
Hammerton | Stout | 8d | pint | bottled | 1047.4 | ||||
Hammerton | Oatmeal Stout | 8d | pint | bottled | 0.05 | 1048 | 1017.3 | 3.97 | 63.96% |
Ind Coope | Stout | 8d | pint | bottled | 1037.5 | ||||
Mann Crossman | London Stout | 8d | pint | bottled | 0.07 | 1048 | 1017.8 | 3.90 | 62.92% |
Mann Crossman | Milk Stout | 5d | half | bottled | 0.04 | 1044.6 | 1022.9 | 2.79 | 48.65% |
Meux | Stout | 8d | pint | bottled | 1045.6 | ||||
Meux | Stout | 7d | pint | draught | 0.08 | 1047 | 1016.7 | 3.92 | 64.47% |
Northampton Brewery | Jumbo Stout | pint | bottled | 0.05 | 1043 | 1024 | 2.43 | 44.19% | |
Raggett | Nourishing Stout | 10d | pint | bottled | 0.07 | 1056.3 | 1019.3 | 4.79 | 65.72% |
Reid | Stout | 8d | pint | bottled | 1046.1 | ||||
Simonds | Milk Stout | 10d | pint | bottled | 0.07 | 1055 | 1018.3 | 4.75 | 66.73% |
Star Brewery, Eastbourne | Stout | pint | bottled | 1039.9 | |||||
Style & Winch | Stout | 7d | pint | bottled | 1043.0 | ||||
Taylor Walker | Stout | 8d | pint | bottled | 1035.3 | ||||
Taylor Walker | Nourishing Stout | 7d | pint | bottled | 0.05 | 1033 | 1015 | 2.32 | 54.55% |
Tollemache | Oatmeal Stout | 7d | pint | bottled | 0.06 | 1045 | 1015.7 | 3.79 | 65.11% |
Truman | Eagle Stout | 8d | pint | bottled | 0.07 | 1040 | 1010.2 | 3.87 | 74.50% |
Truman | Stout | 7d | pint | draught | 0.07 | 1048 | 1011.2 | 4.78 | 76.67% |
Watney | Stout | 7d | pint | draught | 0.10 | 1046 | 1008.9 | 4.83 | 80.65% |
Watney | Reid's Family Stout | 8d | pint | bottled | 0.08 | 1047 | 1012.6 | 4.46 | 73.19% |
Watney | Reid's Special Stout | 9d | pint | bottled | 0.08 | 1055 | 1013.7 | 5.37 | 75.09% |
Whitbread | Stout | 8d | pint | bottled | 1047.1 | ||||
Whitbread | Stout | 7d | pint | bottled | 1039.6 | ||||
Sources: | |||||||||
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001. | |||||||||
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252. |
They're just the ones Whitbread and Truman tested, so they're mostly beers from the Southeast. You can see that many breweries produced multiple Stouts and both in draught and bottle form. Ones in the 1050's would have been direct competitors with Guinness Extra Stout.
There were literally thousands of Stouts brewed in the UK between the wars. I've never come across a brewery that didn't make at least one. More typical was two or three. Barclay Perkins brewed half a dozen.
Guinness did not drive British Stout into extinction between the wars.
5 comments:
In the Worshipful Company of Brewers history it says that at one point members (which included all the big London brewers) were banned from selling Guinness in their pubs.
But do you know why the other brewers' stouts all eventually died out, and Guinness alone remained (with a pretty sizeable share of the market)?
letslookagain,
they never did die out.
Remind me not to piss your off.
(Granted, everybody else benefits by a clear exposition of the facts. However, being sent to your room, tail between your legs, is painful, even if it is for the public good.)
I love to see the facts compared to assumptions.
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