Bottled beer in the 1930's

Sydney Nevile is a particular hero of mine. In his 70 plus years in the brewing industry he not only witnessed huge changes in British brewing, he was one of the forces driving those changes. He was a member of the Central Control Board during WW I and later a director of Whitbread.

Which is why the article I'm about to quote from is of special interest: it was written by Nevile. When, writing in 1936, he talks about the situation 50 years ago, it's not based on things he'd read or heard. He was already working in the brewing industry then.

This is a point I'd never heard before:

"Half a century ago price and quantity were more dominant considerations than quality. Beer was indeed the national beverage, at any rate with the industrial classes, and many consumers displayed a capacity for consumption which would appear startling to-day. It was customary to have a cask of beer on tap in all but the poorer industrial homes; the household regarded beer as an essential food. Large business houses who employed staffs who lived on the premises, supplied them with beer as a matter of course."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 42, Issue 6, November-December 1936, page 520.

He's saying that back in the 19th century, most consumers weren't to fussy about the beer they drank as long as it was cheap and alcoholic and there was lots of it. Draught beer at home sounds weird now. But in the days before there was much bottled beer (and when bottled beer was expensive compared to draught) it made sense. The number of advertisements for beers in cask in 19th century newspapers demonstrate how common it was. The practice did live on in working class households even beyond WW II, but by then casks were only bought in for special occasions, such as Christmas.

Let's move on to what Nevile had to say about bottled beer:

"Bottled Beers
The critical demand for brightness and uniformity of palate, coupled with the fact that beer is stored in many houses in comparatively small quantities, is probably responsible for the great growth of the demand for bottled beers. Fifty years ago bottled beer formed less than 10 per cent., possibly not more than 5 per cent, of the total production, whereas to-day many breweries find their bottled beer represents at least 30 per cent., and in some cases a greater proportion of their total production."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 42, Issue 6, November-December 1936, page 521.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had some figures to back up that assertion of 30% or more of a brewery's output being in bottles. As look would have it, I have such figures. And not from any old brewery, from Whitbread. Where, at the time of writing this article, Nevile was a director.

Whitbread Draught and Bottled sales 1901 – 1919
	total draught		Bottling		Burton
Year	barrels	%	barrels	%	barrels	%	Total
1901	538,097	73.63%	188,525	25.80%	4,153	0.57%	730,775
1910	446,477	55.72%	353,534	44.12%	1,325	0.17%	801,336
1920	400,605	57.14%	298,873	42.63%	1,660	0.24%	701,138
1921	359,301	55.20%	289,869	44.53%	1,714	0.26%	650,884
1922	299,946	54.05%	253,270	45.64%	1,713	0.31%	554,929
1923	256,578	53.59%	220,855	46.13%	1,372	0.29%	478,805
1924	282,014	52.34%	255,291	47.38%	1,530	0.28%	538,835
1925	266,580	52.30%	241,643	47.41%	1,462	0.29%	509,685
1926	260,247	53.31%	226,640	46.43%	1,290	0.26%	488,177
1927	230,463	51.76%	214,752	48.24%	993	0.22%	446,208
1928	235,754	50.84%	227,549	49.07%	911	0.20%	464,214
1929	244,410	50.83%	236,384	49.17%	869	0.18%	481,663
1930	251,760	51.19%	240,069	48.81%	776	0.16%	492,605
1931	239,744	51.48%	225,941	48.52%	533	0.11%	466,218
1932	207,793	49.91%	208,558	50.09%	272	0.07%	416,623
1933	219,942	51.53%	216,910	50.82%	250	0.06%	437,102
1934	242,688	50.99%	233,287	49.01%	230	0.05%	476,205
1935	257,542	52.08%	236,957	47.92%	216	0.04%	494,715
1936	264,388	51.84%	245,666	48.16%	206	0.04%	510,260
1937	269,513	50.99%	259,015	49.01%	197	0.04%	528,725
1938	270,726	50.25%	268,014	49.75%	174	0.03%	538,914
Source:
Whitbread archive document number LMA/4453/D/02/16
Note:
Year ending July

As you can see, at Whitbread the percentage of bottled beer was much higher than the 30% Nevile quoted. Note how Whitbread produced significantly less beer after WW I. At the interwar nadir of 1932 they produced 43% less beer than in 1900.

There was a big jump in bottled beer output in the early decades of the 20th century. Poor-quality draught beer (mostly caused by the inexperience or incompetence of landlords) and improvements in bottling techniques were two of the underlying causes for the increase.

Nevile describes the old bottling techniques wonderfully:

"The advance in the technique of bottling beer has made striking progress. It might be said 50 years ago that bottling consisted of pouring beer into bottles, allowing it to mature naturally for six or eight weeks and then sending it out to the public."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 42, Issue 6, November-December 1936, page 521.

If you remember what I've written about bottled Stock Pale Ale, you'll know that that's a simplification of the process. The beer might well have been matured for months in cask before even arriving in the bottling store.

Why did brewers move away from the old method? Public demand:

"The demand of the public for a beer free from sediment has resulted in a greatly enhanced production of light beers either artificially carbonated or conditioned naturally in bulk and then chilled and filtered before being bottled. Practically all brewers who bottle their beers have adopted one of these methods, and some of the largest brewers who previously relied on naturally matured beer have changed over to the modern process. The development of this class of trade has led to great attention and ingenuity being devoted to bottling plant, a description of which would be out of place in this portion of the review, but the net result has been that the vast majority of the bottled beer distributed either to the homes of the consumers or for consumption in restaurants and licensed houses is brilliant, free from sediment, and of striking uniformity."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 42, Issue 6, November-December 1936, page 521.

Naturally conditioning fell rapidly out of favour after WW I, though some brewers stuck with for certain styles. For example, Bass and Worthington continued to bottle condition some of their Pale Ale. It's ironic that Nevile should talk so glowingly about chilled and filtered bottled beers. When Whitbread offered him a job they made him promise not to chill and filter their bottled beer.

This new-style bottled beer might have been free of sediment and incredibly consistent but how did it taste? Nevile makes no mention of this important attribute.