Brewing materials 1945 – 1960

I can’t believe I haven’t already published this stuff as part of my series on brewing in the UK after W II.

After all, what could be more fascinating than a load of numbers about malt and adjunct usage? Well, I find it fascinating. You can bugger off if you disagree.

I’ll start with the numbers. You’ll have to admit, they are an impressive-looking bunch.

Brewing materials 1945 - 1960 (cwt)
year	malt	unmalted corn	rice, maize, etc	sugar	total malt & adjuncts	hops	prepar-ations of hops	hop substi-tutes	bulk barrels
1945	10,435,212	245,751	1,332,032	1,784,064	13,797,059	244,822	714	139	31,990,334
1946	9,976,998	137,750	1,132,748	1,790,021	13,037,517	226,197	1,414	168	31,066,950
1947	9,454,253	92,974	614,335	1,601,186	11,762,748	217,759	1,423	191	30,103,180
1948	9,499,794	69,939	606,881	1,443,558	11,620,172	231,470	630	547	28,813,725
1949	9,087,351	60,709	505,071	1,303,212	10,956,343	233,158	164	74	26,744,457
1950	9,094,097	56,174	454,500	1,285,877	10,890,648	232,979	114	90	25,339,062
1951	9,282,152	57,681	452,581	1,355,152	11,147,566	229,106	178	82	24,870,564
1952	9,312,437	51,992	467,189	1,385,836	11,217,454	228,512	114	177	25,285,589
1953	9,085,688	58,012	426,396	1,405,154	10,975,250	225,569	335	222	24,789,130
1954	8,629,252	52,219	462,005	1,484,605	10,628,081	216,841	286	188	24,153,387
1955	8,635,522	46,556	478,150	1,529,256	10,689,484	217,716	92	27	24,324,623
1956	8,630,145	40,038	486,838	1,544,258	10,701,279	218,820	110	42	24,187,096
1957	8,872,468	13,834	532,214	1,564,673	10,983,189	215,114	91	28	24,839,755
1958	8,642,500	10,717	543,467	1,527,997	10,724,681	208,870	102	24	24,129,462
1959	8,885,364	8,007	590,006	1,569,002	11,052,379	216,037	107	29	25,023,044
1960	9,406,860	8,994	573,252	1,650,843	11,639,949	226,371	111	24	26,313,796
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.
1971 Brewers' Almanack, page 54.

You can see that while the use of unmalted adjuncts declined steeply after the war, the amount of sugar used was more stable. There’s a simple enough explanation. Brewers were forced by the government to use flaked barley during the latter war years. The idea being that flaking consumed less energy than malting. While brewers had a limit on the amount of sugar they could use in wartime, when they would have preferred to use more.

The quantity of hops used was very stable in the 1950’s, despite beer production falling.

It’s hard to make too much sense of those numbers. Far easier if you look at percentages rather than absolute numbers. Which is why I’ve derived this table:

Brewing materials 1945 - 1960 (%)
year	malt	unmalted corn	rice, maize, etc	sugar	lbs hops per barrel	lbs hops per quarter
1945	75.63%	1.78%	9.65%	12.93%	0.86	5.96
1946	76.53%	1.06%	8.69%	13.73%	0.82	5.83
1947	80.37%	0.79%	5.22%	13.61%	0.81	6.22
1948	81.75%	0.60%	5.22%	12.42%	0.90	6.69
1949	82.94%	0.55%	4.61%	11.89%	0.98	7.15
1950	83.50%	0.52%	4.17%	11.81%	1.03	7.19
1951	83.27%	0.52%	4.06%	12.16%	1.03	6.91
1952	83.02%	0.46%	4.16%	12.35%	1.01	6.84
1953	82.78%	0.53%	3.89%	12.80%	1.02	6.91
1954	81.19%	0.49%	4.35%	13.97%	1.01	6.86
1955	80.79%	0.44%	4.47%	14.31%	1.00	6.84
1956	80.65%	0.37%	4.55%	14.43%	1.01	6.87
1957	80.78%	0.13%	4.85%	14.25%	0.97	6.58
1958	80.59%	0.10%	5.07%	14.25%	0.97	6.54
1959	80.39%	0.07%	5.34%	14.20%	0.97	6.57
1960	80.82%	0.08%	4.92%	14.18%	0.96	6.53
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.
1971 Brewers' Almanack, page 54.

You can see the trends much more clearly in that form. Malt usage increased from 75% to a peak of 83.5% in 1950, then slowly fell back down to 80%. While unmalted corn all but disappears. Maize and rice usage dropped quickly after the end of the war then plateaued at around 5%.

The fall in the proportion of sugar used in 1949 and 1950 probably wasn’t voluntary, but as a result of government restrictions. Pre-war, it clocked in around 15% and you can see that when brewers were free to use as much as they liked in the later 1950’s, it returned to around that level.

The rise in hopping levels after 1947 is partly because of an increase in average gravity, though not totally, as the hopping rate per quarter of malt tells us. There was an increase of more than 1 lb per quarter between 1945 and 1950, after which it declined but still remained above the 1945 level.

The 1960 numbers – 80% malt, 5% adjuncts, 15% sugar, 1 lb hops per barrel – do look like a typical late 1950’s beer’s ingredients.