Hops in WW I

One of the main reasons I bought the 1922 Brewers' Almanack was this table. Frustratingly, the 1928 Almanack doesn't cover all the war years.

I'd noticed when writing recipes that fresh hops - ones from the most recent season - virtually disappeared aafter 1916. looking at the table, the reason is obvious: hop production had collapsed. The reason? The government ordered hop farmer to grub up some of their bines and grow food instead. Almost overnight the area planted with hops was halved.

I can see the logic. Fewer hops were going to be needed, as the emount of beer being produced had declined. And some of the hop growing areas - Kent, for example - are very fertile.

Bit of a double whammy, as hop imports dried up at exactly the same time. I was slightly surprised to se Amrican hops from the 1914 and 1915 seasons quite regularly in brewing records. But not later seasons. In 1918 and 1919 really ancient American hops appear. Ones as  old as 1910. It looks to me like brewers were using up their emergency stocks.

That also explains how in 1917, 1918 and 1919 more hops were used than were available. The number s don't take into account old stocks lying around in breweries.

Aware that there was a shortage of hops, the government stepped in and bought the whole hop crop and distributed it to brewers. The system continued even after war's end, the aim being to rebuild the hop growing industry. To help this, no foreign hops could be imported until the whole UK crop had been sold.

Even with this help, the acreage under hops never got back to its 1914 level.

Table 15- Total quantity of Hops available for consumption in the United Kingdom, and the averages for ten years.
Year.	Area. Acres.	Estimated Production Cwts.	Imports less Exports. Cwts.	Available for Consumption. Cwts.	Consumption (See Table 2).	% imports
1905	48,967	695,943	83,278	779,221	656,792	12.68%
1908	38,916	470,761	257,792	728,463	562,247	45.85%
1909	32,539	214,484	118,568	333,052	548,445	21.62%
1910	32,886	302,675	163,105	465,780	551,248	29.59%
1911	33,056	328,023	102,167	430,190	574,260	17.79%
1912	34,829	373,438	223,566	596,994	549,507	40.68%
1913	35,676	265,641	234,837	490,478	561,708	41.81%
1914	36,661	507,258	73,778	581,031	559,423	13.19%
average 1905-14	38,518	376,803	166,008	542,802	560,549	29.62%
1915	34,744	254,101	191,059	495,160	467,142	40.90%
1916	31,352	307,856	135,385	443,241	450,257	30.07%
1917	16,626	226,763	4,446	230,209	329,334	1.35%
1918	15,626	138,491	6,664	145,155	263,392	2.53%
1919	16,762	187,795	151,485	339,280	400,000	37.87%
1920	21,685	258,042	452,124	710,166	450,000	100.47%
1921	25,186	236,172	214,364	450,536	425,000	50.44%
Source:
1922 Brewers' Almanack, page 119.