A Bitter blow

More bad news for drinkers. Well, Bitter drinkers. Seems like it was business as usual if your tipple was Mild.

Because brewers faced a cut in the materials to brew from:

"BITTER BLOW FOR BEER LOVERS
BREWERS have been set bitter problem, and they are returning a mild answer.

By agreement between the Ministry of Food and the brewers there has been a cut of 10 per cent. in the raw materials for brewing.

No further official interference is expected, but as the Government wants to see the maximum output of beer achieved by the brewers, much of that beer must be of the weaker, or mild, variety.

So less bitter beer is to be brewed, and no strong ale at all.

The past year has been the worst in history for the production malting barley.

Problems for the brewer have been increased by the calling up of the technical staff, while the demand for beer has increased, There is grave anxiety as to whether sufficient barley can malted. This means that immediate Government action is necessary there is not to be a shortage of beer in 1942."
Daily Herald - Wednesday 24 December 1941, page 3.

No Strong Ale to be brewed at all? Nightmare.

But was there really a 10% reduction in the use of brewing materials in 1942? Luckily, I have the numbers to hand:

Brewing materials 1938 - 1946 (cwt)
year	malt	unmalted corn	rice, maize, etc	sugar	total malt & adjuncts	hops	bulk barrels
1938	9,378,888	14,194	688,086	1,894,773	11,975,941	277,846	24,339,360
1939	9,884,803	9,910	734,771	1,986,478	12,615,962	285,715	25,691,217
1940	9,857,838	7,912	363,588	1,532,776	11,762,114	265,512	24,925,704
1941	10,988,413	11,897	246,757	1,397,642	12,644,709	251,354	28,170,582
1942	10,918,102	52,646	382,207	1,411,422	12,764,377	223,007	29,584,656
1943	10,287,322	40,592	1,238,183	1,400,573	12,966,670	231,589	29,811,321
1944	10,621,168	143,183	1,241,121	1,458,647	13,464,119	243,900	31,380,684
1945	10,435,212	245,751	1,332,032	1,784,064	13,797,059	244,822	31,990,334
1946	9,976,998	137,750	1,132,748	1,790,021	13,037,517	226,197	31,066,950
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.

The short answer is no. Slightly more materials in total were used in 1942 than in 1941. The amounnt of beer produced increased, too. There was a slight fall in the amount of malt used, but this was more than offset by an increase in other materials. There was also a modest increase in the quantity of beer produced. Which you'll note was almost 20% higher than in peacetime.

The total materials used and the quantity of beer brewed continued to increase until the end of the war, when both fell.