Monday 1 February 2021

Some post-WW II tables

Carrying on from an earlier post about world beer production during WW II, here's what happened when all the nastiness ended.

Only one country experienced a fall in the quantity of beer brewed: the UK. While the good times

Other countries saw modest increases: USA and France, for example. Over the period covered. The situation with France was more complicated. Production being two million barrels down on 1947. And, yes, those numbers aren’t the same as in the European table. Though I’ve made it difficult for you to spot by using different units. 1945 and 1946 tally, the rest are 300,000 – 400,000 barrels lower in the European table.

Belgium and Czechoslovakia saw a reasonable growth of 23% and 38%, respectively. Canada and Australasia did even better with 52% and 93%. Germany’s seemingly impressive figure is tempered by the fact that they were starting from zero. 

Overall, prospects looked good for brewing in most of the world.

World beer production 1945 - 1954 (1,000 barrels)
Year U.K. Australasia Canada U.S.A. Belgium Czechoslovakia
1945 32,667 3,587 3,859 62,091 4,809 4,534
1946 30,580 3,804 4,328 60,925 6,600 4,538
1947 29,802 4,375 4,811 62,989 7,696 5,405
1948 28,184 4,374 5,022 65,452 6,929 4,987
1949 26,276 4,941 5,013 64,337 6,412 5,924
1950 25,164 5,278 4,946 63,671 6,196
1951 25,087 5,770 5,294 63,792 6,067
1952 25,000 6,088 5.777 64,240 6,215 6,989
1953 24,984 6,395 5,922 64,837 6,239 6,698
1954 23,866 6,929 5,869 66,361 5,907 6,235
change -26.94% 93.17% 52.09% 6.88% 22.83% 37.52%
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 56.
Brewers' Almanack 1962, page 54.


World beer production 1945 - 1954 (1,000 barrels)
Year France West Germany East Germany U.S.S.R. Other Countries Total
1945 5,656
1946 6,410
1947 8,043 7,326
1948 5,295 6,529
1949 5,637 8,648 25,875 153,063
1950 5,167 11,117 35,007 156,546
1951 5,031 17,360 33,583 161,984
1952 5,532 16,328 4.272 9,886 37,503 187,830
1953 5.636 15,806 5,127 11,182 40,076 192,902
1954 5,932 16,648 6,496 11,579 42,395 198,217
change 4.88% 127.25%        
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 56.
Brewers' Almanack 1962, page 54.




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It would be interesting to know if Eastern Bloc countries had reduced production of beer over time due to the inefficiencies of Communism.

I'm sure it would be tricky to figure out though, due to a lot of potential factors, and it's always possible beer didn't get affected like auto manufacturing did.

Mike in NSW said...

The impressive Aussie figure would no doubt be related to mostly British migration after 1945 when the "ten pound pom" programme started.

Probably similar in the case of Canada?

In Australia at the time most draught (but generally not the bottled) beers served over the bar - particularly in NSW - were still ale and had not suffered the gravity drops of the Old Country, still coming in at around 4.5 % ABV and bittered with Goldings and Cluster varieties so would have been a nice and almost familiar tipple for the migrants.

Anonymous said...

I think in Canada a big piece of it was expansion into US markets especially into Northern states. I know Carling and Labatt were pretty agressive.

Distill Spirits said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Ron Pattinson said...

Anonymous,

beer production in the DDR and Czachsloakia rose steadily in the 1950s and 1960s. After 1970, it was pretty stable.

Ron Pattinson said...

Mike in NSW,

some of the increase in Australia was probably just down to population growth.