Brewing in 1960’s Canada – beer production

Loads more numbers again. The word well is well and truly dry. Luckily the number well is overflowing.

Let’s start with the first pallet-load of figures:

Canadian Beer Production 1870 - 1963
Year	Bbls.	Year	Bbls.	Year	Bbls.
1870	291,622	1902	1,104,951	1934	2,083,144
1871	338,284	1903	1,030,206	1935	2,286,198
1872	382,293	1904	1,093,439	1936	2,412,326
1873	442,421	1905	1,213,203	1937	2,694,450
1874	430,861	1906	1,330,026	1938	2,533,265
1875	463,369	1907	1,552,015	1939	2,589,282
1876	372,767	1908	1,492,718	1940	3,044,102
1877	364,610	1909	1,542,328	1941	3,804,565
1878	343,123	1910	1,670,098	1942	4,569,401
1879	353,928	1911	1,900,746	1943	3,979,603
1880	368,048	1912	2,092,576	1944	4,693,128
1881	397,247	1913	2,242,434	1945	5,339,304
1882	481,479	1914	1,920,943	1946	6,126,322
1883	510,298	1915	1,584,113	1947	6,863,869
1884	523,948	1916	1,397,987	1948	7,230,713
1885	482,870	1917	1,148,702	1949	7,218,464
1886	531,291	1918	1,049,902	1950	7,121,501
1887	591,452	1919	1,479,371	1951	7,493,810
1888	617,760	1920	1,447,785	1952	8,319,338
1889	654,354	1921	1,541,670	1953	8,583,423
1890	687,845	1922	1,476,083	1954	8,380,950
1891	722,772	1923	1,763,220	1955	8,882,334
1892	677,849	1924	1,935,600	1956	9,126,568
1893	687,015	1925	2,097,954	1957	9,675,151
1894	731,985	1926	2,070,234	1958	9,369,608
1895	705,152	1927	2,335,917	1959	9,856,337
1896	720,588	1928	2,633,497	1960	10,173,671
1897	715,530	1929	2,538,021	1961	10,238,208
1898	794,869	1930	2,362,947	1962	10,844,603
1899	844,075	1931	2,091,897	1963	11,081,782
1900	932,367	1932	1,626,585
1901	1,004,330	1933	1,636,825
Source:
"Brewing in Canada", Brewers Association of Canada, 1965, page 116.

It’s mostly a story of constant growth, except for a couple of blips around WW I and the early 1930’s. Both are pretty easy to explain. In WW I various prohibitionist measures were introduced first regionally and then, in 1918, nationally. Starting in the early 1920’s, full prohibition was gradually peeled back. By 1928 beer was legal again in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon territories*.

Output levels had only just started to edge past their 1913 when the next calamitous event struck: the Wall Street Crash of 1929. After that there was steady annual growth until the set of numbers ends in 1963.

I’ve some more modern statistics, but not for exactly the same thing. They’re for sales of Canadian beer in Canada, plus beer exported to the USA. Beer exported to other countries – which is actually bugger all – isn’t included.

Sales of Canadian-brewed beer in Canada
	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
US barrels	23,044,364	22,289,186	22,381,476	21,926,440	21,702,116	21,290,576
hl	27,041,870	26,155,691	26,263,991	25,730,019	25,466,782	24,983,852
Source:
"Annual Statistical Bulletin", Beer Canada, page 8.

Clearly production must have continued to increase in the 1960’s and 1970’s, as in 2013, even after a few years of falling, it was still almost double the 1963 level.

And that’s me done. I told you there wouldn’t be many words.




* "Brewing in Canada", Brewers Association of Canada, 1965, pages 100 - 110.