UK brewing in the 1950s

Just for a change, let's travel back to the 1950s rather than WW II.

Once into the 1950s, things began to pick up. Gravities crawled up a little, average OG hitting 1037º in 1951. Where it remained for several decades.

Worryingly for brewers, beer output and consumption continued to fall. The trend was only reversed in 1960. It’s no coincidence that was also the year there was a cut in the tax on beer. Even so, beer production didn’t get back to its 1948 level until 1967.

The restrictions on brewing were gradually relaxed. One of the main results of this was the replacement of flaked barley – which the government had forced brewers to use – by flaked maize, which had been the adjunct of choice before the war.

With building restrictions also relaxed, many brewers took the opportunity to enlarge or modernise their bottling plant. Bottled beer was all the rage and was one of the few growth areas. It also provided greater profit than draught beer.

In the early years of the 1950s really strong beers began to reappear for the first time since 1940. The coronation in 1953 in particular prompted the brewing of special celebratory strong beers. Some of these remained permanent fixtures.

The final years of the decade saw an upsurge of interest in Lager and many breweries, even quite small ones, starting brewing one.

UK beer production and average OG
Year	bulk barrels	average OG
1948	30,408,634	1032.66
1949	26,990,144	1033.43
1950	26,513,997	1033.88
1951	24,891,746	1036.99
1952	25,156,489	1037.07
1953	24,883,227	1036.87
1954	24,582,303	1036.97
1955	23,934,215	1037.13
1956	24,551,158	1037.22
1957	24,506,524	1037.42
1958	24,647,978	1037.48
1959	23,783,833	1037.52
1960	26,115,012	1037.25
1961	27,098,240	1037.41
1962	27,495,836	1037.70
1963	27,813,506	1037.70
1964	28,964,230	1037.66
1965	29,528,050	1037.67
Sources:
1955 Brewers' Almanack, pages 50 & 80.
1971 Brewers' Almanack, pages 45 & 75.

This is an excerpt from my book Austerity! Which you can buy here. All the fun of post-war Britain.

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/austerity/23181344