Friday 29 April 2022

UK brewing 1880 - 1914

Yesterday was dead productive. 

I did quite a bit of the hard slog type of research. Scanning and OCRing tables in The Brewers' Almanack. I can think of more fun things to do. But I've filled in a lot of holes in various spreadsheets of mine.

I also got some writing done. Well, I'd started writing, then realised I was missing some information. Hence the scanning. I do hate incomplete information. Which is why I have to apologise for the patchy import figures in the table below.

The start of the 20th century was a difficult time for brewers. Their costs increased significantly due to tax increases and, more particularly, licence fees. You can see these obstacles reflected in the reduced number of barrels brewed. At least in terms of standard barrels. I’d best explain what a standard barrel is.

A standard barrel was a convenience for taxation purposes. The rate of tax was defined per standard barrel. (That rate was six shillings and three pence in 1881, seven shillings and nine pence in 1914. ) It was defined as 36 imperial gallons of beer with an OG of 1055º (1057º before 1889). For example, beer of 1100º would pay double the rate per standard barrel. As one barrel of that strength would be two standard barrels.

Before WW I, standard barrels matched up fairly closely with bulk barrels, as average OG was only a couple of degrees lower. The situation would be very different after the war.

The general trend of exports was to increase, the 1914 figure being more than 50% higher than that of 1880. Though, at less than 2% of total production, exports weren’t that important to the industry, in general. A few individual brewers were, for example, some in Scotland, heavily relying on them.

Imports increased more than sixfold. From totally insignificant to bugger all. It was pretty much 100% Lager. Everything else could be brewed to an excellent standard domestically, Why would you import a Pale Ale or a Stout into the UK?

UK beer production, imports and exports 1880 - 1914
Year Production (standard barrels) Exports (bulk barrels to 1907 then standard)  Imports (bulk barrels)
1880 30,742,649 412,192 10,742
1881 27,352,361 421,651  
1882 27,870,526 437,273  
1883 27,140,891 456,109  
1884 27,750,091 437,241  
1885 27,986,493 436,765 23,348
1886 27,194,893 420,290  
1889 30,402,298 495,926  
1890 30,868,315 503,221 35,081
1891 32,236,970 462,519 33,728
1895 31,678,486 432,742 44,399
1896 33,826,354 462,960 45,000
1897 34,203,049 470,827 45,752
1898 35,632,629 476,424  
1899 36,498,390 485,032  
1900 37,091,123 510,843 50,875
1901 36,394,827 522,889  
1903 35,978,699 510,896 55,560
1904 35,323,350 518,367 52,059
1905 34,404,287 520,990 51,944
1906 34,109,263 544,014 54,664
1907 34,352,313 604,794 57,574
1908 34,491,415 602,227 53,395
1909 33,348,258 542,084 54,374
1910 32,947,252 570,929 50,927
1911 33,618,935 615,174 53,541
1912 35,094,650 637,301 64,706
1913 34,805,291 659,464 64,346
1914 35,860,291 652,063 74,205
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1912, page 149 and 154.
Brewers' Almanack 1922, page 109 and 114.
Brewers' Almanack 1928, page 109 and 115.
The Brewers' Guardian 1892, 1892, page 41.
Manchester Evening News - Thursday 28 November 1901, page 3.
The British Brewing Industry 1830 - 1980 by T.R. Gourvish and R.G. Wilson, 1994, page 608.
Dundee Evening Post - Monday 01 April 1901, page 2.
Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 51.

 


 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm showing my ignorance of England, unfortunately, but outside of recent craft brewers, did English brewers ever produce a good lager at least on a par with major German or Czech brands?

Ron Pattinson said...

Anonymous,

I think the purpose-built Lager breweries of the late 19th and early 20th centuries did.