German brewing in the 1970’s – more statistics

Time for part two of my statistics feast. Loads more tables. And ones that tell us much about the changes in Europe’s brewing industry over the last few decades.

These figures are all connected with breweries: number of breweries, average output per brewery, average output per employee.

The number of breweries per country varied enormously. We’re still back when half of Europe’s breweries were in West Germany.

“Table III gives the number of working breweries in each of the EEC countries in 1974. The enormous differences influence not only the methods of beer production (i.e. technology) but also the costs of production and distribution, as we will see later.

Table III also illustrates one of the main problems in West Germany. In 1974 the EEC countries had 2,183 production breweries (not companies) which, together, were producing 226,409 million hl per year. The average production per brewery was 103,700 hl. In Ireland, the Netherlands and Great Britain the average production per brewery ranged between 414,700 hl and 869,300 hl but in the much smaller West German breweries the average production was 56,700 hl. Indeed we have today, in West Germany, 1,472 breweries with production less than 120,000 hl/year and only 164 plants with more than that, including only 38 breweries with more than 500,000 hl per year (305,550 brl/year). If you remember that the average production of the 152 breweries in Great Britain is 414,700 hl/year, you can imagine how different the technical and technological problems are in the brewing industry in West Germany.”
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 83, Issue 1, March-April 1977, page 72.

Obviously, the countries with fewer breweries generally had greater output per brewery. Germany, with equivalently far more breweries than anyone else, came bottom. Ireland, with only a handful left, came top.

Here’s the table:

TABLE III. No. of Breweries and Average Beer Production per Brewery in 1974 (x 1,000 hl).
	No. of breweries	Production per brewery
Denmark	50	168.1
Eire	7	869.3
Great Britain	152	414.7
Italy	37	216.6
Netherlands	23	506.2
Luxemburg	7	98.9
Belgium	185	75.7
France	86	252.5
West Germany	1,636	56.7
Total	2,183	Average 103.7

For comparison purposes, here are some recent figures for the same countries:

Number of Active Breweries 2008 - 2013
Country	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	% change 2008 - 2013
Denmark*	N/A	N/A	N/A	150	150	150	N/A
Ireland*	26	26	26	26	26	30	15.38%
United Kingdom	725	745	828	948	1,300	1,490	105.52%
Italy	220	256	308	350	421	509	131.36%
Netherlands*	72	N/A	N/A	125	165	185	156.94%
Luxembourg	5	6	7	7	7	7	40.00%
Belgium*	135	127	135	123	150	160	18.52%
France	132	322	387	442	503	580	339.39%
Germany	1,328	1,331	1,333	1,347	1,340	1,349	1.58%
total	2,643	2,813	3,024	3,518	4,062	4,460	68.75%
* Number of microbreweries unknown
Source:
"Beer Statistics 2014 edition", Brewers of Europe, 2014, page 21.

In the last few years there’s been a remarkable surge in brewery numbers in many European countries. France has seen the biggest growth, but the UK, Italy and The Netherlands have seen the number of breweries double in 5 years. And there’s another very significant figure in there. For the first time I can remember Germany is no longer the country with the most breweries, having been passed by the UK in 2013.

Nailing the two tables together in my inimitable way is very revealing:

Number of Active Breweries 2008 - 2013
Country	1974	2013	% change 2008 - 2013
Denmark	50	150	200.00%
Ireland	7	30	328.57%
United Kingdom	152	1,490	880.26%
Italy	37	509	1275.68%
Netherlands	23	185	704.35%
Luxembourg	7	7	0.00%
Belgium	185	160	-13.51%
France	86	580	574.42%
Germany	1,636	1,349	-17.54%
total	2,183	4,460	104.31%
Sources:
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 83, Issue 1, March-April 1977, page 72.
"Beer Statistics 2014 edition", Brewers of Europe, 2014, page 21.

Overall the number of breweries in the nine countries has more than doubled, but the growth has been very uneven. In two countries – Belgium and Germany – the number has fallen. Factoring in the 200 or so DDR breweries would make the German numbers look even worse.

Comparing the output per brewery in 1974 and 2013 is very illuminating. And I’m sure it’s a development no-one in the industry would have foreseen in the 1970’s.

Production per brewery in 2013 (1,000 hl)
Country	output 2013	No. of breweries 2013	Production per brewery 2013	Production per brewery 1974	% change 1974 - 2013
Denmark	6,166	150	41.11	168.1	-75.55%
Ireland	8,008	30	266.93	869.3	-69.29%
United Kingdom	41,956	1,490	28.16	414.7	-93.21%
Italy	13,256	509	26.04	216.6	-87.98%
Netherlands	23,636	185	127.76	506.2	-74.76%
Luxembourg	281	7	40.14	98.9	-59.41%
Belgium	18,069	160	112.93	75.7	49.18%
France	15,491	580	26.71	252.5	-89.42%
Germany	94,365	1,349	69.95	56.7	23.37%
total/ average	221,228	4,460	49.60	103.7	-52.17%
Sources:
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 83, Issue 1, March-April 1977, page 72.
"Beer Statistics 2014 edition", Brewers of Europe, 2014, pages 7 and 21.

Average output per brewery has fallen everywhere except Germany and Belgium. Which is logical enough, as they’re the two countries with no significant increase in the number of breweries. The UK has gone from having one of the highest averages to third lowest.

Of course, this doesn’t mean there are no longer large breweries. Just that the industry has become fragmented, with businesses on very different scales. On the one hand, a few large industrial breweries churning out millions of hectolitres and on the other loads of small outfits making just a few thousand.

It’s really brought home to me just how much the beer scene has changed since I started drinking. Then a continued decline in number of breweries seemed inevitable. Even the most optimistic drinker wouldn’t have dreamed that the UK could have more than 1,000 breweries again.

I’ve still not completely cleared out this statistic mine. More to come.