Where to start? How about the 19th century. I've loads of good numbers for that. If you're good I'll move on to the 20th century, for which I've even more numbers. No, don't thank me. It's my contribution to the well-being of the world.
I know you're really excited to see them, so here they are in all their numbery glory . . . numbers:
| Irish breweries and their output 1820 - 1901 | ||||||
| Year | malt consumed (thousands of bushels) | No. of breweries | estimated output (barrels) | average output per brewery | UK beer production (barrels) | % brewed in Ireland |
| 1820 | 1,321 | 660,500 | ||||
| 1821 | 1,205 | 602,500 | ||||
| 1822 | 1,396 | 698,000 | ||||
| 1823 | 1,498 | 749,000 | ||||
| 1824 | 1,366 | 683,000 | ||||
| 1825 | 1,337 | 668,500 | ||||
| 1826 | 1,411 | 705,500 | ||||
| 1827 | 1,513 | 756,500 | ||||
| 1828 | 1,403 | 701,500 | ||||
| 1829 | 1,343 | 671,500 | ||||
| 1830 | 1,131 | 565,500 | ||||
| 1831 | 1,494 | 215 | 747,000 | 3,474 | ||
| 1832 | 1,543 | 216 | 771,500 | 3,572 | ||
| 1833 | 1,683 | 231 | 841,500 | 3,643 | ||
| 1834 | 2,005 | 240 | 1,002,500 | 4,177 | ||
| 1835 | 1,830 | 245 | 915,000 | 3,735 | ||
| 1836 | 2,033 | 251 | 1,016,500 | 4,050 | ||
| 1837 | 1,801 | 248 | 900,500 | 3,631 | ||
| 1838 | 1,934 | 243 | 967,000 | 3,979 | ||
| 1839 | 1,814 | 231 | 907,000 | 3,926 | ||
| 1840 | 1,279 | 191 | 639,500 | 3,348 | 16,057,591 | 3.98% |
| 1841 | 1,030 | 166 | 515,000 | 3,102 | 15,936,421 | 3.23% |
| 1842 | 993 | 145 | 496,500 | 3,424 | 14,680,815 | 3.38% |
| 1843 | 1,010 | 138 | 505,000 | 3,659 | 14,431,267 | 3.50% |
| 1844 | 1,095 | 122 | 547,500 | 4,488 | 14,294,118 | 3.83% |
| 1845 | 1,277 | 115 | 638,500 | 5,552 | 14,790,006 | 4.32% |
| 1846 | 1,465 | 118 | 732,500 | 6,208 | 15,062,383 | 4.86% |
| 1847 | 1,233 | 109 | 616,500 | 5,656 | 16,415,675 | 3.76% |
| 1848 | 1,280 | 101 | 640,000 | 6,337 | 14,649,395 | 4.37% |
| 1849 | 1,205 | 96 | 602,500 | 6,276 | 14,691,734 | 4.10% |
| 1850 | 1,165 | 95 | 582,500 | 6,132 | 15,478,569 | 3.76% |
| 1851 | 1,268 | 97 | 634,000 | 6,536 | ||
| 1852 | 1,266 | 98 | 633,000 | 6,459 | ||
| 1853 | 1,308 | 97 | 654,000 | 6,742 | ||
| 1854 | 1,315 | 101 | 657,500 | 6,510 | ||
| 1855 | 1,376 | 104 | 688,000 | 6,615 | ||
| 1856 | 1,542 | 107 | 771,000 | 7,206 | ||
| 1857 | 2,084 | 104 | 1,042,000 | 10,019 | 17,984,773 | 5.79% |
| 1858 | 1,918 | 102 | 959,000 | 9,402 | ||
| 1859 | 2,373 | 109 | 1,186,500 | 10,885 | ||
| 1860 | 2,280 | 109 | 1,140,000 | 10,459 | 20,340,096 | 5.60% |
| 1861 | 2,120 | 93 | 1,060,000 | 11,398 | ||
| 1862 | 2,436 | 108 | 1,218,000 | 11,278 | ||
| 1863 | 2,365 | 104 | 1,182,500 | 11,370 | 20,081,408 | 5.89% |
| 1864 | 2,536 | 95 | 1,268,000 | 13,347 | 21,360,461 | 5.94% |
| 1865 | 2,749 | 90 | 1,374,500 | 15,272 | 22,546,889 | 6.10% |
| 1866 | 3,001 | 91 | 1,500,500 | 16,489 | 25,388,600 | 5.91% |
| 1867 | 3,005 | 87 | 1,502,500 | 17,270 | ||
| 1868 | 2,872 | 81 | 1,436,000 | 17,728 | ||
| 1869 | 3,001 | 80 | 1,500,500 | 18,756 | ||
| 1870 | 3,403 | 80 | 1,701,500 | 21,269 | ||
| 1871 | 3,127 | 79 | 1,563,500 | 19,791 | 26,431,760 | 5.92% |
| 1872 | 3,051 | 74 | 1,525,500 | 20,615 | ||
| 1873 | 3,520 | 74 | 1,760,000 | 23,784 | ||
| 1874 | 3,558 | 68 | 1,779,000 | 26,162 | ||
| 1875 | 3,816 | 65 | 1,908,000 | 29,354 | 31,014,381 | 6.15% |
| 1876 | 3,935 | 62 | 1,967,500 | 31,734 | ||
| 1877 | 4,108 | 61 | 2,054,000 | 33,672 | ||
| 1878 | 3,985 | 59 | 1,992,500 | 33,771 | ||
| 1879 | 3,662 | 56 | 1,831,000 | 32,696 | ||
| 1880 | 3,966 | 53 | 1,983,000 | 37,415 | 30,742,649 | 6.45% |
| 1881 | 3,779 | 52 | 1,889,500 | 36,337 | 27,352,361 | 6.91% |
| 1882 | 4,207 | 54 | 2,103,500 | 38,954 | ||
| 1883 | 5,157 | 48 | 2,578,500 | 53,719 | ||
| 1884 | 4,299 | 43 | 2,149,500 | 49,988 | ||
| 1885 | 4,291 | 42 | 2,145,500 | 51,083 | 27,986,493 | |
| 1886 | 4,187 | 43 | 2,093,500 | 48,686 | ||
| 1887 | 4,411 | 42 | 2,205,500 | 52,512 | ||
| 1888 | 4,477 | 42 | 2,238,500 | 53,298 | ||
| 1889 | 4,732 | 40 | 2,366,000 | 59,150 | ||
| 1890 | 4,696 | 40 | 2,348,000 | 58,700 | 30,808,315 | 7.62% |
| 1891 | 4,905 | 41 | 2,452,500 | 59,817 | ||
| 1892 | 4,904 | 39 | 2,452,000 | 62,872 | ||
| 1893 | 5,078 | 36 | 2,539,000 | 70,528 | ||
| 1894 | 4,916 | 36 | 2,458,000 | 68,278 | ||
| 1895 | 5,071 | 37 | 2,535,500 | 68,527 | 34,404,287 | 7.37% |
| 1896 | 5,258 | 37 | 2,629,000 | 71,054 | ||
| 1897 | 5,114 | 38 | 2,557,000 | 67,289 | ||
| 1898 | 5,443 | 40 | 2,721,500 | 68,038 | ||
| 1899 | 5,552 | 39 | 2,776,000 | 71,179 | ||
| 1900 | 5,641 | 38 | 2,820,500 | 74,224 | 37,105,042 | 7.60% |
| 1901 | 5,978 | 38 | 2,989,000 | 78,658 | ||
| Sources: | ||||||
| "The Dynamics of the international brewing industry since 1800" by Richard George Wilson, Terence Richard Gourvish, 1998, pages 121 - 122 | ||||||
| “Bericht über der Welt Ausstellung zu Paris im Jahre 1867, volume 7”, 1868, page 119. | ||||||
| "Statistics of British commerce" by Braithwaite Poole, 1852, page 6. | ||||||
| Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 110 | ||||||
You're expecting some sort of analysis, I bet. Er, steady decline in the number of breweries, apart from a small blip in the 1850's and 1860's. Increase in output, so obviously an increase in the average output per brewery.
The 20th century is even more exciting. It's coming soon. (As soon as I've copied all the numbers from the Brewers' Almanack.)
I'd really love to see those brewery figures broken down to at least province level (Ulster, Leinster, Munster, Connaught), if not county: and it's very interesting that production falls off a cliff in 1840, five years before the Great Famine, and actually rose in 1846, when the Famine was getting into its stride.
ReplyDeleteMartyn, I do have regional figures for some years. Not sure if they are the right ones, though. Despite spending several weeks trawling through parliamentary papers.
ReplyDeleteThe brewing industry was concentrated in the larger towns in the East and the South: Dublin, Cork, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Waterford and Limerick. (Shit, the last one is in the West.) How hard were these areas hit?