Materials used in brewing in the USA 1941 - 1955

You’ve probably already guessed that you’re in for a whole load of numbers. Lots and lots of them. I’m still saving up spare words for Christmas. Don’t expect many.

Where to start? I know. With some numbers.

Materials used in brewing in the USA 1941 - 1955 (lbs)
Year	Production (barrels)	Malt	Corn and corn products	Rice	Wheat	Barley	Sorghum grains and sorghum products	Soybeans and soybean prods.	sugar and syrups	Other materials	total
1941	55,213,850	1,954,267,618	432,341,547	204,297,333	3,508,975	—	—	—	135,531,375	—	2,729,946,848
1942	63,716,697	2,260,303,931	566,807,517	171,364,293	3,712,050	—	—	—	147,271,062	—	3,149,458,853
1943	71,018,257	2,393,607,097	722,377,366	152,546,147	5,723,799	—	—	—	150,954,828	4,990,702	3,430,199,939
1944	81,725,820	2,290,435,572	873,894,609	185,699,432	35,879,734	187,376,446	(a)	(b)	183,936,092	9,133,202	3,766,355,087
1945	86,604,080	2,198,690,447	939,959,948	214,607,248	50,214,535	175,922,987	110,895,011	5,172,693	238,599,315	185,866	3,934,248,050
1946	84,977,700	2,163,269,238	790,676,699	240,830,895	48,056,971	159,593,299	156,556,138	6,691,056	226,412,612	5,739,591	3,797,826,499
1947	87,856,902	2,513,788,652	719,300,506	172,199,735	769,790	13,777,421	88,995,670	4,885,118	218,598,828	114,352,672	3,846,668,392
1948	91,291,219	2,796,262,968	810,144,155	302,281,030	5,129,348	7,962,618	34,821,925	4,126,934	193,275,206	26,857,753	4,180,861,937
1949	89,735,647	2,751,293,954	818,113,488	299,961,581	6,927,460	6,464,395	7,999,695	3,920,970	180,631,082	17,635,770	4,092,948,395
1950	88,807,075	2,707,240,886	852,074,810	320,830,068	7,284,480	3,701,700	629,392	3,701,383	154,875,158	285,520	4,050,623,397
1951	88,976,226	2,676,405,176	876,103,113	339,116,702	6,525,193	2,579,632	193,600	3,295,380	136,114,360	15,474	4,040,348,630
1952	89,600,916	2,653,518,877	920,372,813	337,305,542	6,236,085	802,828	829,650	3,099,651	119,930,017	8,676	4,042,104,139
1953	90,433,832	2,666,095,392	963,028,027	324,920,748	6,203,690	522,790	29,600	2,714,324	115,445,233	8,000	4,078,967,804
1954	92,561,067	2,727,540,671	1,004,501,475	313,680,318	5,986,583	363,900	67,500	2,020,341	113,417,170	—	4,167,577,958
1955	89,791,154	2,627,010,323	913,693,701	375,111,692	5,423,575	357,920	—	1,601,610	108,604,325	—	4,031,803,146
Source:
Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

You know the drill. These numbers make much more sense as percentages:

Materials used in brewing in the USA 1941 - 1955 (%)
Year	Malt	Corn and corn products	Rice	Wheat	Barley	Sorghum grains and sorghum products	Soybeans and soybean prods.	sugar and syrups	Other materials
1941	71.59%	15.84%	7.48%	0.13%				4.96%
1942	71.77%	18.00%	5.44%	0.12%				4.68%
1943	69.78%	21.06%	4.45%	0.17%				4.40%	0.15%
1944	60.81%	23.20%	4.93%	0.95%	4.98%			4.88%	0.24%
1945	55.89%	23.89%	5.45%	1.28%	4.47%	2.82%	0.13%	6.06%	0.00%
1946	56.96%	20.82%	6.34%	1.27%	4.20%	4.12%	0.18%	5.96%	0.15%
1947	65.35%	18.70%	4.48%	0.02%	0.36%	2.31%	0.13%	5.68%	2.97%
1948	66.88%	19.38%	7.23%	0.12%	0.19%	0.83%	0.10%	4.62%	0.64%
1949	67.22%	19.99%	7.33%	0.17%	0.16%	0.20%	0.10%	4.41%	0.43%
1950	66.84%	21.04%	7.92%	0.18%	0.09%	0.02%	0.09%	3.82%	0.01%
1951	66.24%	21.68%	8.39%	0.16%	0.06%	0.00%	0.08%	3.37%	0.00%
1952	65.65%	22.77%	8.34%	0.15%	0.02%	0.02%	0.08%	2.97%	0.00%
1953	65.36%	23.61%	7.97%	0.15%	0.01%	0.00%	0.07%	2.83%	0.00%
1954	65.45%	24.10%	7.53%	0.14%	0.01%	0.00%	0.05%	2.72%
1955	65.16%	22.66%	9.30%	0.13%	0.01%		0.04%	2.69%
Source:
Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

You can see that the malt content is continuing to fall, dropping to below 60% in 1945 and 1946. I assume that WW II thing had something to do with that. And with the use of raw barley and sorghum 1944 to 1946.

War-influenced years aside, there were only really four ingredients used in any quantities: malt, maize, rice and sugar. Though the quantities of the latter were quite small.

Now pounds of material per US barrel:

Materials used in brewing in the USA 1941 - 1955 (lbs per barrel)
Year	Malt	Corn and corn products	Rice	Wheat	Barley	Sorghum grains and sorghum products	Soybeans and soybean prods.	sugar and syrups	Other materials	Total
1941	35.4	7.8	3.7	0.06	—	—	—	2.5	—	49.46
1942	35.5	8.9	2.7	0.06	—	—	—	2.3	—	49.46
1943	33.7	10.2	2.1	0.08	—	—	—	2.1	0.07	48.25
1944	28.0	10.7	2.3	0.44	2.3	(a)	(b)	2.3	0.11	46.15
1945	25.4	10.9	2.5	0.58	2	1.3	0.06	2.8	0.002	45.54
1946	25.5	9.3	2.8	0.57	1.9	1.8	0.08	2.7	0.07	44.72
1947	28.6	8.2	2.0	0.009	0.2	1	0.06	2.5	1.3	43.87
1948	30.6	8.9	3.3	0.06	0.09	0.38	0.05	2.1	0.29	45.77
1949	30.7	9.1	3.3	0.08	0.07	0.09	0.04	2	0.2	45.58
1950	30.5	9.6	3.6	0.08	0.04	0.007	0.04	1.7	0.003	45.57
1951	30.1	9.8	3.8	0.07	0.03	0.002	0.04	1.5	0.0002	45.34
1952	29.6	10.3	3.8	0.07	0.009	0.009	0.03	1.3	0.0001	45.12
1953	29.5	10.6	3.6	0.07	0.006	0.0003	0.03	1.3	0.0001	45.11
1954	29.5	10.9	3.4	0.06	0.004	0.007	0.02	1.2	—	45.09
1955	29.3	10.2	4.2	0.06	0.004	—	0.02	1.2	—	44.98
Source:
Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

Falling amounts of material per barrel can only mean one thing – falling average gravity. This is my calculation, based on 89 brewer’s pounds per imperial quarter:

YEAR	estimated average OG
1941	1050.79
1942	1050.79
1943	1049.55
1944	1047.39
1945	1046.77
1946	1045.93
1947	1045.05
1948	1047.00
1949	1046.81
1950	1046.80
1951	1046.56
1952	1046.33
1953	1046.32
1954	1046.31
1955	1046.20

You’ll see that this is remarkably similar to what happened in the UK – falling until just after the war then stabilising in the 1950’s.

Average UK gravity
Year	average OG
1941	1038.51
1942	1035.53
1943	1034.34
1944	1034.63
1945	1034.54
1946	1034.72
1947	1032.59
1948	1032.66
1949	1033.43
1950	1033.88
1951	1036.99
1952	1037.07
1953	1036.87
1954	1036.97
1955	1037.13
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50
Brewers' Almanack 1962, p. 48

Right. Some more UK numbers:

Materials used in brewing in the UK 1941 - 1955 (lbs)
year	malt	unmalted corn	rice, maize, etc	sugar	total malt & adjuncts	bulk barrels
1941	1,230,702,256	1,332,464	27,636,784	156,535,904	1,416,207,408	28,170,582
1942	1,222,827,424	5,896,352	42,807,184	158,079,264	1,429,610,224	29,584,656
1943	1,152,180,064	4,546,304	138,676,496	156,864,176	1,452,267,040	29,811,321
1944	1,189,570,816	16,036,496	139,005,552	163,368,464	1,507,981,328	31,380,684
1945	1,168,743,744	27,524,112	149,187,584	199,815,168	1,545,270,608	31,990,334
1946	1,117,423,776	15,428,000	126,867,776	200,482,352	1,460,201,904	31,066,950
1947	1,058,876,336	10,413,088	68,805,520	179,332,832	1,317,427,776	30,103,180
1948	1,063,976,928	7,833,168	67,970,672	161,678,496	1,301,459,264	28,813,725
1949	1,017,783,312	6,799,408	56,567,952	145,959,744	1,227,110,416	26,744,457
1950	1,018,538,864	6,291,488	50,904,000	144,018,224	1,219,752,576	25,339,062
1951	1,039,601,024	6,460,272	50,689,072	151,777,024	1,248,527,392	24,870,564
1952	1,042,992,944	5,823,104	52,325,168	155,213,632	1,256,354,848	25,285,589
1953	1,017,597,056	6,497,344	47,756,352	157,377,248	1,229,228,000	24,789,130
1954	966,476,224	5,848,528	51,744,560	166,275,760	1,190,345,072	24,153,387
1955	967,178,464	5,214,272	53,552,800	171,276,672	1,197,222,208	24,324,623
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62
1971 Brewers'Almanack, page 54

Now as the more useful percentages:

Materials used in brewing in the UK 1941 - 1955 (%)
Year	malt	unmalted corn	rice, maize, etc	sugar	lbs per Imp. barrel	lbs per US barrel
1941	86.90%	0.09%	1.95%	11.05%	50.3	36.0
1942	85.54%	0.41%	2.99%	11.06%	48.3	34.6
1943	79.34%	0.31%	9.55%	10.80%	48.7	34.9
1944	78.88%	1.06%	9.22%	10.83%	48.1	34.5
1945	75.63%	1.78%	9.65%	12.93%	48.3	34.6
1946	76.53%	1.06%	8.69%	13.73%	47.0	33.7
1947	80.37%	0.79%	5.22%	13.61%	43.8	31.4
1948	81.75%	0.60%	5.22%	12.42%	45.2	32.4
1949	82.94%	0.55%	4.61%	11.89%	45.9	32.9
1950	83.50%	0.52%	4.17%	11.81%	48.1	34.5
1951	83.27%	0.52%	4.06%	12.16%	50.2	36.0
1952	83.02%	0.46%	4.16%	12.35%	49.7	35.6
1953	82.78%	0.53%	3.89%	12.80%	49.6	35.6
1954	81.19%	0.49%	4.35%	13.97%	49.3	35.3
1955	80.79%	0.44%	4.47%	14.31%	49.2	35.3
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62
1971 Brewers'Almanack, page 54

You can see that the malt percentage was much higher in the UK and never fell below 75%. The war seems to have affected maize usage the most. The dip in the early war years was doubtless due to the difficulties of importing it. The surge in its use in the later war years was probably due to renewed supplies from the USA.

Now for hops.

Hop usage in the USA 1934 - 1940
YEAR	HOPS	LBS./ BBL.
1941	31,154,676	0.56
1942	34,511,559	0.54
1943	34,833,108	0.49
1944	36,514,843	0.45
1945	37,085,950	0.43
1946	37,555,031	0.44
1947	40,506,913	0.46
1948	41,576,128	0.46
1949	39,629,621	0.44
1950	37,889,576	0.43
1951	36,231,622	0.41
1952	35,233,507	0.39
1953	34,944,509	0.39
1954	35,127,350	0.38
1955	33,736,717	0.38
Source:
Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

The amount of hops used per barrel continued to fall. While in the UK it was much more constant:

Hop usage in the UK 1941 - 1955
year	bulk barrels	hops( lbs)	hops lbs/  Imperial barrel	hops lbs/  US barrel
1941	28,170,582	28,151,648	1.00	0.72
1942	29,584,656	24,976,784	0.84	0.61
1943	29,811,321	25,937,968	0.87	0.62
1944	31,380,684	27,316,800	0.87	0.62
1945	31,990,334	27,420,064	0.86	0.61
1946	31,066,950	25,334,064	0.82	0.58
1947	30,103,180	24,389,008	0.81	0.58
1948	28,813,725	25,924,640	0.90	0.65
1949	26,744,457	26,113,696	0.98	0.70
1950	25,339,062	26,093,648	1.03	0.74
1951	24,870,564	25,659,872	1.03	0.74
1952	25,285,589	25,593,344	1.01	0.73
1953	24,789,130	25,263,728	1.02	0.73
1954	24,153,387	24,286,192	1.01	0.72
1955	24,324,623	24,384,192	1.00	0.72
Source:
1971 Brewers' Almanack, page 54
1953 Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.

Again, using the standard barrel to iron out the difference in average gravity between the US and UK, the difference is even more striking:

Hop usage in the UK 1914 - 1920
year	standard barrels	hops( lbs)	hops lbs/  Imperial barrel	hops lbs/  US barrel
1941	18,351,113	28,151,648	1.53	1.10
1942	19,294,605	24,976,784	1.29	0.93
1943	18,293,919	25,937,968	1.42	1.02
1944	19,193,773	27,316,800	1.42	1.02
1945	19,678,449	27,420,064	1.39	1.00
1946	20,612,225	25,334,064	1.23	0.88
1947	17,343,690	24,389,008	1.41	1.01
1948	18,061,390	25,924,640	1.44	1.03
1949	16,409,937	26,113,696	1.59	1.14
1950	16,337,315	26,093,648	1.60	1.15
1951	16,739,464	25,659,872	1.53	1.10
1952	16,958,628	25,593,344	1.51	1.08
1953	16,681,119	25,263,728	1.51	1.09
1954	16,525,316	24,286,192	1.47	1.05
1955	16,161,698	24,384,192	1.51	1.08
Source:
1971 Brewers' Almanack, page 54
1953 Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.

There’s still lots more of this to come.