London vs. Vienna 1865

Time for more tables? Yes! We'll be focusing on the yesr 1865. Specifically, brewery output in London and Vienna that year.

If you read this blog regularly, you'll be aware that London was the birthplace of industrial brewing. The Porter breweries of the 18th century were the largest and most mechanised ever seen. For a century, continental Europe lagged far behind.

Thanks to the efforts of one Anton Dreher, Vienna was the first continental city where brewing was conducted on a scale approaching that in Britain. Dreher's brewery in Kleinschwechat on the edge of Vienna quickly established itself as the largest on the continent, mostly due to its early adoption of the Bavarian method of brewing. Or bottom-fermentation, as we know it.

Let's compare the output of the breweries of London and Vienna in 1865.

First London:

Output of London breweries in 1865
brewery	barrels	hl
Barcaly Perkins	415,142	679,405
Whitbread	236,418	386,912
Truman, Hanbury	537,189	879,142
Reid and Co	277,757	454,566
Mann, Crossman & Paulin	203,117	332,413
Total	1,669,623	2,732,438
Source:
The British Brewing Industry, 1830-1980 T. R. Gourvish & R.G. Wilson, pages 610-611

Now Vienna:

Output of Viennese breweries in 1865
place	output (Austrian eimer)	output (hl)
Kleinschwechat	408,080	230,995
Liesing	275,200	155,778
St. Marx	209,600	118,645
Brunn	164,694	93,225
Hüttendorf	139,477	78,951
Jedlersee	153,140	86,685
Ottakring	150,270	85,061
Simmering	123,750	70,049
Nussdorf	99,500	56,322
Wien (Lichtenthal)	90,550	51,256
Wien (Ungargasse)	84,300	47,718
Schöllenhof	78,540	44,458
Währing	74,640	42,250
Fünfhaus	72,200	40,869
Gaudenzdorf	65,180	36,895
Grinzing	63,240	35,797
Neudorf	63,150	35,746
Döbling	47,600	26,944
Hernals	39,800	22,529
Leopoldsdorf	39,500	22,359
Perchtoldsdorf	38,241	21,646
Wien (Margarethen)	33,500	18,963
Total	2,514,152	1,423,142
Average	114,279.64	64,688.26
Source:
“Bericht über der Welt_Ausstellung zu Paris im Jahre 1867, volume 7”, 1868, page 126.

Dreher's brewery was still smaller than the largest in London,. but was closing in on Whitbread.

Of course, Vienna's breweries were later overshadowed by those of Bohemia and Bavaria. Their role in the development of European brewing, in particular the spread of bottom-fermentation, has been largely forgotten. Much as the Viennese style of amber Lager has retreated into obscurity. Shame.