UK beer exports 1900 - 2016

Another boring numbers post. Feel free to skip it if you prefer those word things. Though I will be throwing in a few of those as well.

I've accumulated some impressive sets of numbers over the years. Especially about British brewing. Mostly they're from the Brewers' Almanack and its successor, the Statistical Handbook. I've got a fairly complete set of most numbers for the 20th century, though there are a few gaps.

The longer the set, the more useful the numbers, I generally find. This lot certainly offered up some surprises. The biggest being that since 1987 UK beer exports have been greater than ever before.

For most of the 20th century, beer exports were in the range 300,000 - 500,000 hl per year. But over the last couple of decades this has shot up to several millions of hectolitres annually. Unfortunately, I don't know which specific beers are being exported. Though given the numbers, most of it must be being produced on an industrial scale.

Good news? I guess so. But there's a huge problem looming on the horizon. Because guess where most of those exports go: EU countries. 63% of exports in 2016. I'm surprised no-one has mentioned this yet. All I've heard are the supposed opportunities that Brexit offers brewers. I suspect that the opposite is more likely to be the case. Be interesting to see what the numbers look like in five years time.

UK beer exports 1900 - 2016
year	hl	year	hl	year	hl
1900	798,057	1945	213,478	1969	617,139
1905	798,057	1946	306,721	1983	749,544
1910	934,360	1947	179,498	1984	857,557
1913	1,066,657	1948	335,655	1985	984,000
1915	787,485	1949	415,927	1986	1,011,230
1920	519,063	1950	362,023	1987	1,145,000
1922	427,001	1951	450,763	1988	1,231,675
1923	421,339	1952	437,600	1989	1,335,443
1924	429,872	1953	466,320	1990	1,624,000
1925	436,852	1954	405,906	1991	1,842,767
1926	483,584	1955	368,902	1992	2,100,000
1927	452,931	1956	390,937	1993	2,100,000
1934	353,976	1957	391,824	1994	3,200,000
1935	381,055	1958	406,988	1995	3,019,000
1936	531,977	1959	349,168	1996	3,654,000
1937	557,669	1960	364,123	1997	3,290,710
1938	460,338	1962	463,128	1998	3,853,530
1939	464,740	1963	586,923	2000	3,646,600
1940	436,579	1964	623,189	2010	6,789,100
1941	369,129	1965	600,578	2014	5,241,900
1942	155,139	1966	538,643	2015	5,649,600
1943	175,143	1967	484,883	2016	5,974,500
1944	126,992	1968	556,979
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 115
Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 57
Brewers' Almanack 1962, p. 57
Brewers' Almanack 1971, p. 54
“The Brewers' Society Statistical Handbook 1988” page 17
“The Brewers' Society Statistical Handbook 1990” page 17
Statistical Handbook of the British Beer & Pub Association 2003, p. 21
Statistical Handbook of the British Beer & Pub Association 2005, p. 17
Statistical Handbook of the British Beer & Pub Association 2011, p. 17
Statistical Handbook of the British Beer & Pub Association 2017, p. 15 - 16