Materials used in brewing in the USA 1934 – 1940

You may have spotted that I’ve silently started a new series. All based around one wonderful table of statistics. Another chance for virtually word-free posts. No point wasting words when I don’t need to.

We’ve leap-frogged over the Prohibition years and are in the second half of the 1930’s. Rather than faff around, let’s dive straight into the number pool. First with absolute numbers:

Materials used in brewing in the USA 1934 - 1940 (lbs)
YEAR	PRODUCTION (BARRELS)	MALT	C0RN AND CORN PRODUCTS	RICE	WHEAT	BARLEY	SUGAR AND SYRUPS
1934	37,678,313	1,433,359,057	256,875,821	102,962,470	—	—	142,445,469
1935	45,228,605	1,725,736,002	340,841,047	139,728,970	—	—	155,374,560
1936	51,812,062	1,952,210,101	450,230,018	116,310,725	—	—	167,354,485
1937	58,748,087	2,176,928,721	423,066,228	230,745,621	—	—	188,028,513
1938	56,340,163	2,059,842,865	375,029,816	260,224,294	—	—	175,811,690
1939	53,870,563	1,938,177,252	415,689,330	198,317,295	2,839,922	9,000	150,765,190
1940	54,891,737	1,958,419,675	441,101,545	188,943,875	3,535,908	3,987	144,877,697
Source:
Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

Interesting that beer production peaked in 1937, then fell back. I wonder why that might have been?

But those numbers are easier to interpret when changed to percentages:

Materials used in brewing in the USA 1934 - 1940 (%)
YEAR	MALT	C0RN AND CORN PRODUCTS	RICE	WHEAT	BARLEY	SUGAR AND SYRUPS
1934	74.05%	13.27%	5.32%			7.36%
1935	73.07%	14.43%	5.92%			6.58%
1936	72.68%	16.76%	4.33%			6.23%
1937	72.11%	14.01%	7.64%			6.23%
1938	71.75%	13.06%	9.06%			6.12%
1939	71.63%	15.36%	7.33%	0.10%	0.00%	5.57%
1940	71.56%	16.12%	6.90%	0.13%	0.00%	5.29%
Source:
Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

That’s much clearer, isn’t it? The malt percentage is falling at the expense of maize and rice. Intriguing that the sugar percentage was falling, too.

This next table demonstrates that gravities were falling, too:

Materials used in brewing in the USA 1934 - 1940 (lbs per barrel)
YEAR	MALT LBS./ BBL.	C0RN AND CORN PRODUCTS LBS./ BBL.	RICE LBS./ BBL.	WHEAT LBS./ BBL.	BARLEY LBS./ BBL.	SUGAR AND SYRUPS LBS./ BBL.	TOTAL
1934	38.1	6.8	2.7	—	—	3.8	51.4
1935	38.2	7.5	3.1	—	—	3.4	52.2
1936	37.7	8.7	2.2	—	—	3.2	51.8
1937	37.1	7.2	3.9	—	—	3.2	51.4
1938	36.6	6.7	4.6	—	—	3.2	51.1
1939	36	7.7	3.7	0.05	0.000167067	2.8	50.3
1940	35.7	8	3.4	0.06	7.26339E-05	2.6	49.8
Source:
Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

Why? Because the amount of materials used per barrel was falling. Based on a yield of 89 brewers pound to an imperial quarter, this is my estimate of the average OG in the US:

YEAR	estimated average OG
1934	1052.79
1935	1053.61
1936	1053.20
1937	1052.79
1938	1052.48
1939	1051.61
1940	1051.10

Now compare and contrast time. Or an excuse for loads more tables. First absolute numbers:

Materials used in brewing in the UK 1934 - 1940 (lbs)
year	malt	unmalted corn	rice, maize, etc	sugar	total malt & adjuncts	bulk barrels
1934	895,504,288	1,323,392	61,360,880	172,841,536	1,131,030,096	20,378,879
1935	945,778,624	1,227,072	65,838,192	182,775,712	1,195,619,600	21,598,179
1936	968,388,064	1,202,208	66,386,208	191,006,816	1,226,983,296	22,207,859
1937	1,015,490,000	1,198,512	72,652,048	205,619,232	1,294,959,792	23,608,658
1938	1,050,435,456	1,589,728	77,065,632	212,214,576	1,341,305,392	24,339,360
1939	1,107,097,936	1,109,920	82,294,352	222,485,536	1,412,987,744	25,691,217
1940	1,104,077,856	886,144	40,721,856	171,670,912	1,317,356,768	24,925,704
Source:
1953 Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.

Now the more interpretable percentages:

Materials used in brewing in the UK 1934 - 1940 (%)
YEAR	malt	unmalted corn	rice, maize, etc	sugar	lbs per Imp. barrel	lbs per US barrel
1934	79.18%	0.12%	5.43%	15.28%	55.5	39.8
1935	79.10%	0.10%	5.51%	15.29%	55.4	39.7
1936	78.92%	0.10%	5.41%	15.57%	55.2	39.6
1937	78.42%	0.09%	5.61%	15.88%	54.9	39.3
1938	78.31%	0.12%	5.75%	15.82%	55.1	39.5
1939	78.35%	0.08%	5.82%	15.75%	55.0	39.4
1940	83.81%	0.07%	3.09%	13.03%	52.9	37.9
Source:
1953 Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.

You can see here the impact of WW II. That’s why the percentage of malt in the grist increases and that of maize and rice declines. The latter two both needed to be imported. The percentage of sugar in the grist was much higher in the UK, 15% compared to 6% in the USA.

Now for hops. First the US figures:

Hop usage in the USA 1934 - 1940
YEAR	HOPS	LBS./ BBL.
1934	26,235,235	0.70
1935	31,772,887	0.70
1936	34,516,246	0.67
1937	37,004,749	0.63
1938	34,874,575	0.62
1939	32,462,163	0.60
1940	31,926,866	0.58
Source:
Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

You can see that there was a steady fall in the hopping rate. Compare that with the UK:

Hop usage in the UK 1914 - 1920
year	bulk barrels	hops( lbs)	hops lbs/  Imperial barrel	hops lbs/  US barrel
1934	20,378,879	26,142,928	1.28	0.92
1935	21,598,179	27,859,328	1.29	0.92
1936	22,207,859	28,929,600	1.30	0.93
1937	23,608,658	30,306,304	1.28	0.92
1938	24,339,360	31,118,752	1.28	0.92
1939	25,691,217	32,000,080	1.25	0.89
1940	24,925,704	29,737,344	1.19	0.86
Source:
1953 Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.

The UK hopping rate was very steady until the onset of WW II. Note how in some years – 1934 and 1939 – UK and US hop usage was almost exactly the same in terms of pounds. But US gravities were higher. A fairer comparison is based on  standard barrels, 36 imperial gallons with an OG of 1055. As that’s based on a more similar gravity to US beers.

Hop usage in the UK 1914 - 1920
year	standard barrels	hops( lbs)	hops lbs/  Imperial barrel	hops lbs/  US barrel
1934	15,043,120	26,142,928	1.74	1.25
1935	15,577,836	27,859,328	1.79	1.28
1936	16,386,985	28,929,600	1.77	1.27
1937	16,985,231	30,306,304	1.78	1.28
1938	18,055,539	31,118,752	1.72	1.24
1939	18,364,156	32,000,080	1.74	1.25
1940	18,738,619	29,737,344	1.59	1.14
Source:
1953 Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.

On this basis, UK beers had about double the quantity of hops as American beers.

I’ve got several more decades of these numbers. It’s going to take a while.