New numbers

If you've been paying the very vaguest of attention to my writings, you'll have spotted that I'm a bit number obsessed. A book called "Numbers!" which is pretty much all numbers is a bit of a clue.

I don't harvest numbers as aggressively as I once did. Partly because I've already netted many of the relevant ones.

Those I found today, probably don't sound so impressive. UK imports in terms of standard barrels*. I already had the bulk barrel numbers. Which is just the straight volume. Combined, however, they let me calculate the average OG of beer imported into the UK. Which was remarkably constant at a shade under 1053º.

No surprise there. As the vast majority came from Ireland in the form of Guinness Extra Stout. Which, at the time, was 1055º. Other imports were overwhelmingly continental Lager. Logically, that must have been weaker than Guinness to get the average OG down.

Looking at the ludicrous number of beer analyses I have, I see that one import, Carlsberg Pilsener, was just 1045º.

The past was such a different place.

But at least they still had our friends numbers to guide us.

UK beer imports 1930 - 1939
Year	bulk barrels	standard barrels	Average OG imports	Average OG UK beer
1930	1,522,906	1,464,082	1052.9	1042.9
1931	1,602,322	1,541,385	1052.9	1042.5
1932	1,373,450	1,320,171	1052.9	1041.0
1933	1,203,063	1,157,186	1052.9	1039.5
1934	1,276,270	1,220,877	1052.6	1041.0
1935	1,332,277	1,277,957	1052.8	1041.1
1936	1,392,457	1,335,982	1052.8	1041.0
1937	1,385,833	1,330,266	1052.8	1041.1
1938	1,163,046	1,112,737	1052.6	1041.0
1939	838,269	793,516	1052.1	1040.9
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50.
Brewers' Journal 1940, page 51 (published January 17th, 1940).

* As explained yesterday, 36 gallons with an OG of 1055º.