Only one country experienced a
fall in the quantity of beer brewed: the UK. While the good times
Other countries saw modest increases: USA and France, for example. Over the period covered. The situation with France was more complicated. Production being two million barrels down on 1947. And, yes, those numbers aren’t the same as in the European table. Though I’ve made it difficult for you to spot by using different units. 1945 and 1946 tally, the rest are 300,000 – 400,000 barrels lower in the European table.
Belgium and Czechoslovakia saw a reasonable growth of 23% and 38%, respectively. Canada and Australasia did even better with 52% and 93%. Germany’s seemingly impressive figure is tempered by the fact that they were starting from zero.
Overall, prospects looked good for brewing in most of the world.
| World beer production 1945 - 1954 (1,000 barrels) | ||||||
| Year | U.K. | Australasia | Canada | U.S.A. | Belgium | Czechoslovakia |
| 1945 | 32,667 | 3,587 | 3,859 | 62,091 | 4,809 | 4,534 |
| 1946 | 30,580 | 3,804 | 4,328 | 60,925 | 6,600 | 4,538 |
| 1947 | 29,802 | 4,375 | 4,811 | 62,989 | 7,696 | 5,405 |
| 1948 | 28,184 | 4,374 | 5,022 | 65,452 | 6,929 | 4,987 |
| 1949 | 26,276 | 4,941 | 5,013 | 64,337 | 6,412 | 5,924 |
| 1950 | 25,164 | 5,278 | 4,946 | 63,671 | 6,196 | — |
| 1951 | 25,087 | 5,770 | 5,294 | 63,792 | 6,067 | — |
| 1952 | 25,000 | 6,088 | 5.777 | 64,240 | 6,215 | 6,989 |
| 1953 | 24,984 | 6,395 | 5,922 | 64,837 | 6,239 | 6,698 |
| 1954 | 23,866 | 6,929 | 5,869 | 66,361 | 5,907 | 6,235 |
| change | -26.94% | 93.17% | 52.09% | 6.88% | 22.83% | 37.52% |
| Sources: | ||||||
| Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 56. | ||||||
| Brewers' Almanack 1962, page 54. | ||||||
| World beer production 1945 - 1954 (1,000 barrels) | ||||||
| Year | France | West Germany | East Germany | U.S.S.R. | Other Countries | Total |
| 1945 | 5,656 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1946 | 6,410 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1947 | 8,043 | 7,326 | — | — | — | — |
| 1948 | 5,295 | 6,529 | — | — | — | — |
| 1949 | 5,637 | 8,648 | — | — | 25,875 | 153,063 |
| 1950 | 5,167 | 11,117 | — | — | 35,007 | 156,546 |
| 1951 | 5,031 | 17,360 | — | — | 33,583 | 161,984 |
| 1952 | 5,532 | 16,328 | 4.272 | 9,886 | 37,503 | 187,830 |
| 1953 | 5.636 | 15,806 | 5,127 | 11,182 | 40,076 | 192,902 |
| 1954 | 5,932 | 16,648 | 6,496 | 11,579 | 42,395 | 198,217 |
| change | 4.88% | 127.25% | ||||
| Sources: | ||||||
| Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 56. | ||||||
| Brewers' Almanack 1962, page 54. | ||||||
It would be interesting to know if Eastern Bloc countries had reduced production of beer over time due to the inefficiencies of Communism.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it would be tricky to figure out though, due to a lot of potential factors, and it's always possible beer didn't get affected like auto manufacturing did.
The impressive Aussie figure would no doubt be related to mostly British migration after 1945 when the "ten pound pom" programme started.
ReplyDeleteProbably similar in the case of Canada?
In Australia at the time most draught (but generally not the bottled) beers served over the bar - particularly in NSW - were still ale and had not suffered the gravity drops of the Old Country, still coming in at around 4.5 % ABV and bittered with Goldings and Cluster varieties so would have been a nice and almost familiar tipple for the migrants.
I think in Canada a big piece of it was expansion into US markets especially into Northern states. I know Carling and Labatt were pretty agressive.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeletebeer production in the DDR and Czachsloakia rose steadily in the 1950s and 1960s. After 1970, it was pretty stable.
Mike in NSW,
ReplyDeletesome of the increase in Australia was probably just down to population growth.