Brewing ingredients in WW II

When the dust had settled at the end of WW I, things didn’t totally revert to the way they had been pre-war. UK brewing still wasn’t self-sufficient in raw materials, though it was less dependent than it had been. Not because UK production of materials had expanded, but because less beer was being brewed and it was of the lower gravity and hence required fewer ingredients.

Considerable quantities of barley continued to be imported, and all of the maize employed came from overseas. As well as considerable quantities of cane sugar. Between 1930 and 1938, on average, about 15% of the hops used in UK brewing were imported.

Difficulties in sea transport greatly limited – or entirely suppressed – the importation of most brewing materials. This wasn’t as big a problem as in WW I, as percentage of foreign ingredients in 1939 than it had been in 1914. But it still required brewers to adapt their grists.

The war made people do many things that they wouldn’t usually do. Brewing was no exception. Brewers being forced to use ingredients they wouldn’t usually have considered.

Flaked maize, for which there was no domestic source, was the first for the chop. Though, as it was only really used as a cheap substitute for malt, rather than for any inherent characteristics which had little impact on the character of the beer, replacing it wasn’t such a problem.   Several alternatives were employed at various points of the war: rice, oats and flaked barley.

Brewing materials 1938 - 1950 (%age)
year	malt	Un-malted corn	rice, maize, etc	sugar	hops per bulk barrel (lbs)	hops per standard barrel (lbs)	Hops per quarter (lbs)
1938	78.31%	0.12%	5.75%	15.82%	1.28	1.71	7.8
1939	78.35%	0.08%	5.82%	15.75%	1.25	1.67	7.61
1940	83.81%	0.07%	3.09%	13.03%	1.19	1.62	7.58
1941	86.90%	0.09%	1.95%	11.05%	1	1.43	6.68
1942	85.54%	0.41%	2.99%	11.06%	0.84	1.31	5.87
1943	79.34%	0.31%	9.55%	10.80%	0.87	1.39	6
1944	78.88%	1.06%	9.22%	10.83%	0.87	1.38	6.09
1945	75.63%	1.78%	9.65%	12.93%	0.86	1.36	5.96
1946	76.53%	1.06%	8.69%	13.73%	0.82	1.29	5.83
1947	80.37%	0.79%	5.22%	13.61%	0.81	1.37	6.22
1948	81.75%	0.60%	5.22%	12.42%	0.9	1.52	6.69
1949	82.94%	0.55%	4.61%	11.89%	0.98	1.61	7.15
1950	83.50%	0.52%	4.17%	11.81%	1.03	1.67	7.19
Source:
my calculation from figures in 1955 Brewers' Almanack, page 62
Notes:
assumes a quarter = 336 lbs