Friday, 8 August 2025

UK Imports of Hops 1889-98

A Barclay's Russian Stout advert with a bottle of Russian Stout and a glass full of foaming Stout in the foreground and a stylised two-headed eagle in the background.
As I've told you many times, the UK imported a shitload of hops in the second half of the 19th century. Here are some numbers to confirm that.

We'll kick off by looking at how many hops were being used by UK brewers, how many were home-grown and how many imported.

You can see that domestic production of hops varied enormously - from 280,000 cwts to 637,000 hops. Which, as consumption of hops averaged 623,000 a year, was clearly insufficient for the needs of UK brewers. Hence the need for large volumes of imports. Running at an average of 184,000 cwts. Or around 30% of the hops used.

Next, we'll look at the source of those hops.

You'll see that the vast majority came from just five countries: the USA, Germany, Belgium, Holland and France. With small quantities coming from all other countries. The principal suppliers being the USA and Belgium. I'm surprised that Holland was supplying so many hops. Well, any at all. As Holland isn't exactly renowned for hop cultivation. Incredible that it was providing more than Germany.

In most years covered in the table, more than 50% of UK imports came from the USA. Peaking at 70% in 1895. Given what I've seen in brewing records, that comes as no surprise. Though, for the same reason, it was shocking how few came from Germany. Perhaps my thinking has been distorted by all the time I've spent looking at William Younger records recently. They seemed to have a liking for German hops.



And that's it. This is the last post of more than two dozen that I've queued up to cover my trip to Australia with Andrew. Hopefully, I haven't broken anything while there. 

Consumption of Hops in the United Kingdom
  Area. Production. Net Imports of following Year. Consumption. Proportion of Foreign to Total Supply.
  Acres. Cwts. Cwta. Cwts. Per cent.
1888 58,490 281,291 181,343 462,634 39.20%
1889 57,724 497,811 175,584 673,345 26.10%
1890 53,961 283,629 185,526 469,165 39.50%
1891 56,142 436,716 170,834 613,550 28.80%
1592 56,259 413,259 185,716 598,975 31.00%
1893 57,564 414,929 168,316 583,245 28.90%
1894 59,535 636,846 204,087 840,933 24.30%
1895 58,940 553,206 193,738 747,134 25.90%
1896 54,217 453,188 148,610 601,848 24.70%
1897 50,863 411,086 223,747 634,833 35.20%
Average 56,370 438,215 184,350 622,565 29.60%
Source:
The Brewers' Journal vol. 36 1900, February 15th 1900, page 127.

 

Imports of Hops 1889-98 (cwts)
Year USA Germany Belgium Holland France All other Countries. total % from US
1889 77,529 20,492 38,858 47,463 14,401 641 199,384 38.88%
1890 73,448 25,129 40,498 38,527 10,383 2,043 190,028 38.65%
1891 80,226 17,199 42,637 35,355 15,893 3,956 195,266 41.09%
1592 80,829 11,691 39,044 38,384 12,206 5,353 187,507 43.11%
1893 141,819 3,785 37,351 15.214 2,481 3.742 185,455 76.47%
1894 109,731 12,053 33,622 26,164 5,980 1,606 189,156 58.01%
1895 153,046 15,400 25,411 19,564 2,816 874 217,111 70.49%
1896 135,822 13,011 32,984 19,912 3,996 1,316 207,041 65.60%
1897 84,905 15,881 36,787 20,667 5,160 755 164,155 51.72%
1898 101,535 8,280 30,151 9,169 1,644 3,357 154,136 65.87%
Source:
The Brewers' Journal vol. 36 1900, February 15th 1900, page 127.

 

 

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