Saturday 14 February 2015

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.

1 comment:

Alan said...

From 1916-19 as well as for a few years in the middle of WW2 there were controls on grain use and beer distribution to ensure there were supplied for the troops but in the 20s beer production expands because there was never a ban on brewing and sales into the "dry" USA were booming. Interprovincial law even allowed for sales on Quebec beer into Ontario. Wine was never really cut off. Canada had no real interest in prohibition, just control.