Austrian beer output by º Balling in 1888 (part two)

Yes, it's time for another little compare and contrast exercise. Well you didn't think I was going to leave these plump, nubile numbers unmolested, did you?

This time we're looking at three German-speaking provinces whiuch still form part of Austria today: Upper Austria, Styria and Salzburg. Like our last three provinces, these form a contiguous piece of territory. Though, as we'll soon see, that doesn't mean it was a homogenous unit in terms of types of beer produced.

Looking through these statistics for the different parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, you get some idea as to why it might have fallen apart. There are huge contrasts between provinces and not a huge amount of common ground. Add to that dozens of languages and multiple systems of currency and you get some idea of the possibility for chaos.

It reminds me of one of my favourite bits in the Good Soldier Svejk, when the hero tries on a Russian uniform and gets captured by his own side. When his German-speaking captors ask him where he's from and he replies "Praha" (Prague), they think he's a Pole from Praga (a suburb of Warsaw. I think it neatly sums up the absurdity of the Empire.

OK, let's crack on with some numbers. First the full set:

Austrian Beer output by º Balling in 1888 (hl)
º Balling	Upper Austria	%	Salzburg	%	Styria	%	Total	%
6	0		0		0		2,233	0.02%
7	0		0		0		54	0.000%
8	0		0		0		0	0.00%
9	41,590	4.39%	10	0.003%	150	0.02%	278,431	2.12%
10	167,274	17.66%	6,438	2.15%	8,105	1.23%	7,226,651	54.99%
11	240,492	25.40%	67,664	22.56%	28,626	4.34%	1,924,339	14.64%
12	486,201	51.34%	203,899	67.97%	209,795	31.78%	2,126,679	16.18%
13	9,516	1.00%	20,007	6.67%	202,434	30.67%	1,173,621	8.93%
14	1,076	0.11%	1,650	0.55%	135,124	20.47%	254,212	1.93%
15	820	0.09%	0	0.00%	75,631	11.46%	148,318	1.13%
16	22		300	0.10%	276	0.04%	4,973	0.04%
17	0		0		0		1,497	0.01%
18	0		0		0		441	0.003%
19	0		0		0		200	0.002%
20	0		0		0		732	0.01%
22	0		0		0		48	0.00%
total	946,991	7.21%	299,968	2.28%	660,141	5.02%	13,142,429
active breweries	228	11.74%	60	3.09%	68	3.50%	1942
inactive breweries	20	6.90%	2	0.69%	4	1.38%	290
average output per brewery	4,153		4,999		9,708		6,767

We'll begin with what the three provinces have in common: 12º was the most brewed. Though the percentage share this type had varies a lot: 68% in Salzburg, 51% in Upper Austria and 32% in Styria. In the latter 12º only won by a nose from 13º. Drilling down further, A fair proportion of 10º was brewed in Upper Austria (18% of the total), but minimal amounts in the other two provinces. While in Styria large quantites of 13º, 14º and 15º were made, but very little in the other two. It's interesting that over 50% of the 14º 15º brewed in the whole Empire came from Styria. There must be a reason for that. very little beer in the Bock category - 16º and up - was brewed in either of the three provinces.

1,907,100 hl were brewed in the three provinces combined, or about 14.5% of the Empire total. The breweries in Styria were clearly operating on a larger scale, averaging 9,708 hl per brewery, or about double that of the other two.

Grouping the numbers together into strength bands that roughly represent beer types, the picture becomes clearer:

º Balling	Upper Austria	%	Salzburg	%	Styria	%
6 to 10	208,864	22.06%	6,448	2.15%	8,255	1.25%
11 to 12	726,693	76.74%	271,563	90.53%	238,421	36.12%
13 to 15	11,412	1.21%	21,657	7.22%	413,189	62.59%
16 to 22	22	0.002%	300	0.10%	276	0.04%

Upper Austria is three-quarters Lagerbier strength, one quarter Schankbier. While Salzburg is over 90% Lagerbier and 7% Märzen/Export. Finally Styria is one-third Lagerbier and two-thirds Märzen/Export. The difference are too great to be insignificant or random.

I'm saving another three provinces for next time. Try not to miss them.