Did Guinness dominate Britain after WW I?

There was an article about WW I in the last issue of Beer written by Brian Glover that's got me a bit irritated.

Bit of a specialist subject for me, WW I. Most of the article isn't too bad, if a bit vague at times. But its towards the end here I had the red mist descend. Because he said that Guinness dominated the British Stout market after the war, mostly because restrictions on beer poroduction hadn't applied to Ireland.

Just two slight errors there. First Guinness didn't brush aside all competition after the war. Second, restrictions did apply in Ireland. Not as strict as the ones in the rest of the UK, but restrictions nonetheless.

This is a summary of the restrictions from the final war years:

"April 1 1918: Output for quarter reduced to rate of 11,470,000 standard barrels. The extra 20 per cent. offer withdrawn and 33 1/3 per cent. for munition areas reduced to 10.4 per cent., equal to 1,120,000 barrels, leaving total output at rate of 12,590,000 a year. Conditions changed by provision that average gravity of all beer brewed shall not exceed 1030º for great Britain and 1045º for Ireland, and that no beer shall be brewed below 1010º: and prices fixed at 4d. per pint below 1030º, and 5d. per pint for 1030º to 1034º. Food Controller imposed a special charge of 25s. per standard barrel for a munition beer brewed under his licence. April 23 1918: Duty increased to 50s.

Jan. 1 1919 : Statutory barrelage increased by 25 per cent., making annual rate of total output 13,260,000 standard barrels. Gravities raised 2º both for Great Britain and Ireland.

Feb. 20 1919 : Food Controller stated that "it is being constantly represented to us from Labour and other organisations that the shortage of beer and spirits is a cause contributing to the unrest in the country. I hope very shortly to be in a position to allow a considerably larger additional output of beer, and of better quality, than that recently sanctioned."

April 1 1919 : Beer duty raised to 70s. Statutory barrelage increased by 50 per cent., and gravity raised to 1040º in Great Britain. Special charge of 25s. per barrel for munition beer abolished as from April 30 1919.

May 23 1919 : Statutory barrelage further increased by 45 per cent., bringing total output up to rate of 26,000,000 standard barrels a Year. July 1 1919: All restriction on volume of output removed, and average permitted gravity increased in Great Britain to 1044º, and in Ireland to 1051º."
"The Brewers' Almanack 1928" pages 100 - 101.

Proof Guinness didn't tak over the UK Stout market? Well there's this table:

Guinness Extra Stout sales 1912-1930 (barrels)
Year	Britain	Ireland	total	UK Production	% Guinness
1912	913,659	674,868	1,588,527	36,476,000	2.50%
1913	1,022,077	736,563	1,758,640	36,296,000	2.82%
1914	1,070,814	731,511	1,802,325	37,558,767	2.85%
1915	1,122,784	641,346	1,764,130	34,765,780	3.23%
1916	1,135,902	581,577	1,717,479	32,110,608	3.54%
1917	621,374	369,201	990,575	30,163,988	2.06%
1918	613,295	347,753	961,048	19,085,413	3.21%
1919	1,029,235	565,870	1,595,105	23,264,533	4.42%
1920	1,732,881	798,493	2,531,374	35,047,947	4.94%
1921	1,591,908	786,688	2,378,596	34,504,570	4.61%
1922	1,254,920	724,894	1,979,814	30,178,731	4.16%
1923	1,205,468	696,582	1,902,050	25,850,701	4.66%
1924	1,315,325	640,974	1,956,299	27,381,316	4.80%
1925	1,347,174	583,730	1,930,904	28,665,729	4.70%
1926	1,215,179	544,008	1,759,187	28,524,797	4.26%
1927	1,203,003	520,923	1,723,926	26,824,387	4.48%
1928	1,120,955	508,483	1,629,438	27,064,583	4.14%
1929	1,213,481	508,158	1,721,639	26,329,639	4.61%
1930	1,380,691	493,669	1,874,360	26,936,316	5.13%
Sources: Statistical Handbook of the British Beer & Pub Association 2005, p. 7 Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 110 Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50 “A Bottle of Guinness please” by David Hughes, pages 276-279. Note: UK production figures adjusted to include Guinness output for years 1922-1930

That doesn't look like Guinness swept all before it in the 1920's. Their market share was pretty stable throughout the immediate postwar period.

This table compares sales in Whitbread pubs of their own Porters and Stouts and Guinness and Whitbread.

Whitbread sales of Porter & Stout 1929 – 1938 (barrels)
	Whitbread Porter & Stout	Guinness & Bass	% Guinness & Bass
1929	85,779	45,595	34.71%
1930	151,008	50,064	24.90%
1931	143,619	45,245	23.96%
1932	126,467	37,977	23.09%
1933	121,436	39,192	24.40%
1934	122,220	41,528	25.36%
1935	123,269	41,773	25.31%
1936	123,880	41,344	25.02%
1937	127,374	41,353	24.51%
1938	127,575	39,077	23.45%
Sources: Whitbread archive document number LMA/4453/D/02/16 Whitbread brewing records

It's clear that Whitbread's own Stout outsold Guinness by a factor of at least three to one (that's assuming there's almost no Bass in the combined Guinness and Bass figure) and possibly as much as five or six to one.

Maybe that was just Whitbread. Let's take a look at how many Stouts were being brewed in the UK in the 1930's. Here's a random selection from a single year, 1935:

British Stouts from 1935
Brewer	Beer	Price	size	package	Acidity	OG	FG	ABV	App. Attenuation
Allsopp	Milk Stout	9d	half	bottled	0.06	1049.3	1013.8	4.61	72.01%
Anglo Bavarian	Stout	6.75d	pint	bottled	0.07	1053	1019.8	4.29	62.64%
Ansell	Tonic Stout	8d	pint	bottled	0.07	1050.5	1011	5.14	78.22%
Ansell	Milk Stout	5.5d	half	bottled	0.07	1060.7	1018.1	5.53	70.18%
Barclay Perkins	Stout		pint	bottled	0.11	1051	1018.2	4.24	64.31%
Barclay Perkins	Imperial Stout	6d to 9d	pint	bottled	0.13	1061.8	1014.2	6.20	76.97%
Barclay Perkins	Stout	8d	pint	draught	0.14	1058	1012.2	5.97	78.97%
Cannon Brewery	Cannon Stout		pint	bottled		1041	1013.4	3.57	67.32%
Charrington	Toby Stout		pint	bottled	0.06	1044	1016.5	3.55	62.50%
Charrington	Anchor Stout	7d	pint	bottled	0.06	1035	1014.1	2.70	59.71%
Courage	Stout	8d	pint	bottled		1048.9
Courage	Stout	7d	pint	bottled		1036.5
Eldridge Pope	Double Stout		pint	bottled	0.07	1044.2	1013.5	3.98	69.46%
Fremlin	Milk Stout	8d	pint	bottled	0.06	1048.8	1020.2	3.69	58.61%
Fremlin	Oatmeal Stout	7d	pint	bottled	0.06	1041	1015.3	3.32	62.68%
Friary Holroyd	Double Stout	7d	pint	bottled	0.06	1043	1017.2	3.33	60.00%
Hammerton	Stout	8d	pint	bottled		1047.4
Hammerton	Oatmeal Stout	8d	pint	bottled	0.05	1048	1017.3	3.97	63.96%
Ind Coope	Stout	8d	pint	bottled		1037.5
Mann Crossman	London Stout	8d	pint	bottled	0.07	1048	1017.8	3.90	62.92%
Mann Crossman	Milk Stout	5d	half	bottled	0.04	1044.6	1022.9	2.79	48.65%
Meux	Stout	8d	pint	bottled		1045.6
Meux	Stout	7d	pint	draught	0.08	1047	1016.7	3.92	64.47%
Northampton Brewery	Jumbo Stout		pint	bottled	0.05	1043	1024	2.43	44.19%
Raggett	Nourishing Stout	10d	pint	bottled	0.07	1056.3	1019.3	4.79	65.72%
Reid	Stout	8d	pint	bottled		1046.1
Simonds	Milk Stout	10d	pint	bottled	0.07	1055	1018.3	4.75	66.73%
Star Brewery, Eastbourne	Stout		pint	bottled		1039.9
Style & Winch	Stout	7d	pint	bottled		1043.0
Taylor Walker	Stout	8d	pint	bottled		1035.3
Taylor Walker	Nourishing Stout	7d	pint	bottled	0.05	1033	1015	2.32	54.55%
Tollemache	Oatmeal Stout	7d	pint	bottled	0.06	1045	1015.7	3.79	65.11%
Truman	Eagle Stout	8d	pint	bottled	0.07	1040	1010.2	3.87	74.50%
Truman	Stout	7d	pint	draught	0.07	1048	1011.2	4.78	76.67%
Watney	Stout	7d	pint	draught	0.10	1046	1008.9	4.83	80.65%
Watney	Reid's Family Stout	8d	pint	bottled	0.08	1047	1012.6	4.46	73.19%
Watney	Reid's Special Stout	9d	pint	bottled	0.08	1055	1013.7	5.37	75.09%
Whitbread	Stout	8d	pint	bottled		1047.1
Whitbread	Stout	7d	pint	bottled		1039.6
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.

They're just the ones Whitbread and Truman tested, so they're mostly beers from the Southeast. You can see that many breweries produced multiple Stouts and both in draught and bottle form. Ones in the 1050's would have been direct competitors with Guinness Extra Stout.

There were literally thousands of Stouts brewed in the UK between the wars. I've never come across a brewery that didn't make at least one. More typical was two or three. Barclay Perkins brewed half a dozen.

Guinness did not drive British Stout into extinction between the wars.