The brewing industry in Bavaria 1910 - 1915

You're going to have to endure loads more statistics based posts like this, now I've got me a new stash of German technical brewing magazines. Just tell me if you want me to stop. I won't pay any attention, but you'll feel better for having voiced your opinion.

Sadly this magazine didn't publish any of these numbers after 1915. They were probably too depressing. The effect of the war is already clear in the 1915 figures. Malt usage is down 25%, but beer production only 18%. That can only mean one thing: a drop in beer gravity.

I'm not totally sure what is meant by beer exports in this table. It could include shipments to other parts of Germany. Given that the amount exported increased in 1915, that's probably the case. Whatever the exact details, you can see that, although they were only responsible for about 25% of beer production, around 50% of Bavarian exports came from Munich breweries.

What's also obvious is that the huge number of Weissbier breweries produced bugger all beer. Before the war only 40-odd hectolitres each.

I was pleasantly surprised to se the number of Kommunbrauers making beer for personal use increased between 1912 and 1913. Though it did start dropping once war started. These Kommunbrauer were almost all in two regions: around Bamberg and Schweinfurt. On the eve of war there were a very respectable 490 communal breweries. I doubt there are 20 left today.

The organisation of the majority of bottom-fermenting breweries was still pretty old-fashioned, as only 80-odd out of 3,000 plus were limited companies. I'd bet a good percentage of those 80 were located in Munich and Nuremberg.

The proportion of top-fermented beer was tiny, under 1% for all of these years. I'm sure that's very different now, given the huge surge in popularity of Weissbier since the 1970's.

I've done a little maths on the beer production and malt usage statistics to come up with an average gravity figure. But I'm saving that for next time.

The brewing industry in Bavaria 1910 - 1915
	1910	1911	1912	1913	1914	1915
malt usage (D -Ztr)	3,515,466	3,719,250	3,585,684	3,531,458	3,089,019	2,327,042
beer production total	18,119,473	19,641,640	19,300,262	19,088,071	17,020,404	14,191,893
bottom-fermenting	17,943,345	19,462,625	19,121,839	18,908,908	16,865,399	14,086,697
top-fermenting	167,128	179,015	178,423	179,163	155,005	105,196
beer exports	2,576,364	2,670,577	2,748,336	2,759,218	2,306,601	2,497,779
beer imports (Zollgebiet)	71,498	76,617	74,982	73,723	72,737	58,334
beer imports (abroad)	4,080	4,354	1,775	1,948
bottom-fermenting breweries			3,582	3,485	3,396	3,031
Aktienbrauereien			86	84	80	81
Other breweries				2,911	2,807	2,482
Kommunbrauereien				490
Braunbierbrauer			11,937	11,931	12,083	10,580
Kommunbrauer				8,936
home-use Kommunbrauer			6,735	6,843		6,523
commercial Kommunbrauer			2,128	2,093	2,015	1,480
Weisbierbrauer			4,832	4,741	4,825	4,385
Munich breweries
malt usage (D -Ztr)		956,941	905,632	889,952	742,603	642,840
beer production total		4,853,994	4,638,063	4,528,741	3,854,735	3,749,708
Weissbier production					43,728	32,795
beer exports		1,283,544	1,325,700	1,325,262	1,048,012	1,253,442
Sources:
1910 - 1913: Bayerisches Brauer-Journal 1914, pages 375-376
1914 - 1915: Bayerisches Brauer-Journal 1916, pages 241-242