Raw material costs in WW II

There was a big increase in the price of both malt and hops, unsurprisingly, over the course of the war. If Barclay Perkins is typical, this had the effect of raising the percentage of the cost of raw materials relative to the retail price.

In 1939, before the war began, the cost of the malt, adjunct and sugar used in the brewing of XX came to just over 7% of the retail price. Especially considering that the tax paid was slightly over 2d per pint. Or around a third of the 6d public bar price.

The “XX share” column is there because the brew was a parti-gyle with X, Barclay Perkins Ordinary Mild. There was rather more of that brewed than XX, hence the latter’s share is only around a third of the total.

The situation was very different in 1945. The share of raw materials had more than doubled to just over 15%. While the tax paid had leapt to 7.5d per pint – almost two-thirds of the price public bar punters paid.  Ever since, a huge percentage of the retail price of beer in the UK has been made up of tax. Whereas before WW I tax, was only around 10% of the price. Those lucky Edwardians.

21st June 1939 Barclay Perkins XX
malt.hops	qtrs/cwts	price	total	XX share
amber malt	4	51.5	206	79.96
crystal malt	6	46.5	279	108.30
Californian pale malt	19	47	893	346.63
Hama pale malt	10	42.5	425	164.97
mild malt	33	50	1650	640.47
SA malt	17	49	833	323.34
maize	17	36	612	237.55
No. 3 invert sugar	15	42	630	244.54
MK Fuggles 1938	2.36	196	462	179.33
MK Fuggles 1938	2.32	197	457.32	177.51
MK Fuggles 1937	2.38	181	431.49	167.49
total			6878.81	2670.09
OG	1044.8
barrels brewed	260.25
cost per pint	0.43
retail price per pint (d)	6
% raw materials	7.12%
Source:
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/623.

13th July 1945 Barclay Perkins XX
malt.hops	qtrs/cwts	price	total	XX share
amber malt	4	161	644	315.64
crystal malt	6	146	876	429.35
SA malt	17	142	2414	1183.15
mild malt	33	142	4686	2296.71
PA malt	17	152	2584	1266.47
flaked barley	17	110	1870	916.53
No. 3 invert sugar	15	99	1485	727.83
MK Fuggles 1943	0.61	385	233.75	114.57
MK Fuggles 1943	0.78	385	299.06	146.58
MK Fuggles 1941	0.78	333	258.67	126.78
total			15350.48	7523.61
OG	1035.4
barrels brewed	172.75
cost per pint	1.81
retail price per pint (d)	12
% raw materials	15.12%
Source:
Barclay Perkins Circular Letters held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/521/1.