UK beer production 1850 - 1922

Numbers and Ireland. A happy meeting of obsessions. Today it's time for a round-up.

I was shocked to find that I had lots of numbers missing from my giant production spreadsheet. I've spent the last week filling some of those holes. And have come up with a lovely new table. All fresh and shiny. here it is:

UK Beer production 1850 - 1922
	England and Wales		Scotland		Ireland		total UK
	barrels	%	barrels	%	barrels	%
1850	14,420,069	93.16%	476,000	3.08%	582,500	3.76%	15,478,569
1857	16,326,773	90.78%	616,000	3.43%	1,042,000	5.79%	17,984,773
1860	18,384,096	90.38%	816,000	4.01%	1,140,000	5.60%	20,340,096
1863	18,005,908	89.66%	893,000	4.45%	1,182,500	5.89%	20,081,408
1864	19,106,461	89.45%	986,000	4.62%	1,268,000	5.94%	21,360,461
1865	20,061,389	88.98%	1,111,000	4.93%	1,374,500	6.10%	22,546,889
1866	22,634,100	89.15%	1,254,000	4.94%	1,500,500	5.91%	25,388,600
1871	23,588,104	89.24%	1,227,000	4.64%	1,616,656	6.12%	26,431,760
1875	27,927,381	90.05%	1,179,000	3.80%	1,908,000	6.15%	31,014,381
1880	27,616,649	89.83%	1,143,000	3.72%	1,983,000	6.45%	30,742,649
1881	24,425,861	89.30%	1,037,000	3.79%	1,889,500	6.91%	27,352,361
1885	24,603,993	87.91%	1,237,000	4.42%	2,145,500	7.67%	27,986,493
1890	26,794,315	86.97%	1,666,000	5.41%	2,348,000	7.62%	30,808,315
1895	30,110,787	87.52%	1,758,000	5.11%	2,535,500	7.37%	34,404,287
1900	32,146,769	86.64%	2,289,048	6.17%	2,669,225	7.19%	37,105,042
1905	30,594,189	86.39%	2,021,374	5.71%	2,799,960	7.91%	35,415,523
1910	29,284,045	85.38%	1,956,659	5.70%	3,059,210	8.92%	34,299,914
1914	31,737,384	84.50%	2,288,981	6.09%	3,532,902	9.41%	37,558,767
1915	29,310,783	84.31%	2,042,477	5.87%	3,412,520	9.82%	34,765,780
1916	26,914,428	83.82%	1,917,148	5.97%	3,279,032	10.21%	32,110,608
1917	25,497,825	84.53%	1,816,003	6.02%	2,850,170	9.45%	30,163,988
1918	16,340,250	85.62%	1,141,114	5.98%	1,603,679	8.40%	19,085,043
1919	20,133,048	86.54%	1,325,439	5.70%	1,806,096	7.76%	23,264,533
1920	29,891,845	85.29%	2,186,604	6.24%	2,969,498	8.47%	35,047,947
1921	28,927,178	83.84%	2,096,080	6.07%	3,481,312	10.09%	34,504,570
1922	25,486,663	84.45%	1,770,175	5.87%	2,939,893	9.74%	30,178,731
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 110
“A History of the Brewing Industry in Scotland”  by IanDonnachie, 1998, pages 147-148.
Statistics of British commerce by Braithwaite Poole, 1852, page 6.
“Bericht über der Welt_Ausstellung zu Paris im Jahre 1867, volume 7”, 1868, page 119.
Ireland Industrial and Agricultural, 1902, page 492
The Dynamics of the international brewing industry since 1800 by Richard George Wilson, Terence Richard Gourvish, 1998, pages 121 - 122, estimated from malt used

Before you say "But how does that compare to population, here's a table showing just that:

UK Population 1841 - 1911
	England and Wales		Scotland		Ireland		total
	population	% UK Pop	population	% UK Pop	population	% UK Pop
1841	17,435,700	61.76%	2,618,000	9.27%	8,177,700	28.97%	28,231,400
1851	17,932,400	65.51%	2,889,000	10.55%	6,554,000	23.94%	27,375,400
1861	20,063,000	69.44%	3,063,000	10.60%	5,768,300	19.96%	28,894,300
1871	22,715,000	72.15%	3,362,000	10.68%	5,405,600	17.17%	31,482,600
1881	25,974,300	74.46%	3,734,000	10.70%	5,174,900	14.83%	34,883,200
1891	29,001,400	76.82%	4,046,000	10.72%	4,704,800	12.46%	37,752,200
1901	32,527,800	78.46%	4,472,100	10.79%	4,458,700	10.75%	41,458,600
1911	36,072,500	79.76%	4,760,900	10.53%	4,390,200	9.71%	45,223,600
Source:
http://www.populstat.info/

Beer production increased in Ireland and Scotland in the second half of the 19th century. Both in absolute amount brewed and percentage of UK beer production.

Let's look at Scotland first. It had about 10% of the UK population throughout the period under analysis.But it's beer production was always well below 10% of the UK total. The best it could manage was 6.24%.

Ireland is more complicated. The percentage of the UK population living in Ireland dropped from almost 30% to around 10% between 1841 and 1911. Perversely, beer production increased, despite the falling population, more quickly than in Scotland. Eventually beer production reached about the same percentage as the population. Meaning that, per head, Ireland was producing as much beer as England and Wales.

here's another table, showing beer production per head of population:

Beer output per head of population 1850 - 1910
	England and Wales			Scotland			Ireland
	beer production	population	barrels per head	beer production	population	barrels per head	beer production	population	barrels per head
1850	14,420,069	17,932,400	0.80	476,000	2,889,000	0.16	582,500	6,554,000	0.09
1860	18,384,096	20,063,000	0.92	816,000	3,063,000	0.27	1,140,000	5,768,300	0.20
1871	23,588,104	22,715,000	1.04	1,227,000	3,362,000	0.36	1,616,656	5,405,600	0.30
1881	24,425,861	25,974,300	0.94	1,037,000	3,734,000	0.28	1,889,500	5,174,900	0.37
1890	26,794,315	29,001,400	0.92	1,666,000	4,046,000	0.41	2,348,000	4,704,800	0.50
1900	32,146,769	32,527,800	0.99	2,289,048	4,472,100	0.51	2,669,225	4,458,700	0.60
1910	29,284,045	36,072,500	0.81	1,956,659	4,760,900	0.41	3,059,210	4,390,200	0.70

I think that shows more clearly how Scotland still lagged behind England while Ireland was closing in fast.

Of course, Ireland's success in upping beer production was almost entirely due to the efforst of one firm: Guinness. By the end of the 19th century it wasn't only the largest brewery in the UK, but the largest in the whole world. Quite an achievement.