Sunday 20 June 2021

World beer production in 1913, 1920, 1929—1934

Some more lovely numbers from that Polish trade journal. I hope you enjoy them as mush as I do.

Just a couple of observations. I'm struck by how high up the list Belgium comes. For such a small country, ranking fifth in the world (as it did in both 1913 and 1934)  in terms of beer production is very impressive. Also note how far down the list the Netherlands is, producing not much more than 10% of what Belgium did.

Beer production fell almost everywhere after 1930, doubtless as a result of the worldwide recession. Also in just about every European country output was lower in 1934 than in 1913. One country which did show impressive growth was Japan, going from 100,000 hl in 1913 to almost 1.75 million hl in 1934.

It's weird that in some years more beer was brewed in tiny Luxembourg than in Mexico.

World beer production in 1913, 1920, 1929—1934 (1,000 hl)
Country 1913 1920 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934
USA 76,655 9,384 8,000 28,000 25,000 25,000 39,135 50,248
Germany 69,200 25,618 57,028 48,486 37,093 33,581 34,132 36,838
United Kingdom 58,805 44,822 31,789 30,770 26,788 21,639 23,414 25,388
Austria 22,709 600 5,275 5,083 4,385 3,058 2,522 2,419
Belgium 16,727 10,407 15,377 16,662 18,377 15,558 14,400 13,800
France 12,844 11,548 17,555 18,314 18,577 17,627 17,700 16,743
Czechoslovakia 3,874 12,162 11,410 10,380 9,648 7,964 7,990
Russia') 10,138 2,000 3,000 4,510 3,000 3,700 3,700
Ireland 3,480 3,663 3,129 2,779 2,941 2,924
Australia 2,936 2,852 3,350 3,025 2,529 2,265 2,387
Switzerland 2,969 1,068 2,541 2,610 2,621 2,526 2,419 2,465
Sweden 2,706 2,021 2,052 2,982 2,835 2,806 2,418 2,429
Poland 2,786 2,516 1,931 1,400 1,058 1,102
Denmark 2,465 2,374 2,118 2,291 2,212 2,005 2,023 2,161
Canada 2,353 1,680 2,793 2,653 2,100 1,950 1,707
Netherlands 1,780 1,200 2,273 2,316 2,280 2,103 1,609 1,513
Argentina 1,000 1,493 1,981 2,132 1,828 1,158 1,308 1,344
Brazil 700 819 1,766 1,766 1,456 850 900 925
Italy 673 949 1,127 902 718 397 339 372
Hungary 491 602 446 312 184 165 167
Yugoslavia 600 600 600 540 319 215 210
Norway 515 894 509 525 417 425 398 401
Mexico 500 300 680 720 719 418 520 673
Luxembourg 525 563 496 426 407 423
Chile 490 413 520 494 371 367 390 444
New Zealand 454 582 580 523 444 401 402
Japan 100 1,250 1,600 1,633 1,368 1,379 1,688 1,747
Romania 314 169 867 632 418 418 358 433
Finland 333 424 335 296 292 346
South Africa 300 350 349 323 314 273 270 327
Spain 310 302 744 794 744 719 632 749
Cuba 255 200 402 204 158 160 173 233
Bulgaria 166 139 84 51 48 91 60 46
India 170 161 118 95 88 81 69
Latvia 95 89 71 62 62 76
Lithuania 101 115 113 72 70 60
Turkey 97 100 40 41 36 32 23 22
Estonia 89 69 58 52 60 51
China 80 61 60 96 83 101 98 105
Uruguay 79 89 190 152 147 120 103 116
Peru 65 156 130 144 104 70 69 88
Ecuador 55 57 82 80 60 47 53 65
Colombia 55 85 315 200 130 142 200 375
Egypt 52 70 73 57 49 39 45 53
Bolivia 50 98 82 66 49 42 46 46
Gdansk 48 77 74 81
Portugal 40 56 100 83 59 56 59 55
Philippines 38 54 40 40 40 40 40 35
Algiers 35 35 100 140 140 108 113 91
Venezuela 35 30 150 111 118 65 71 55
Panama. 30 50 75 81 91 88 75 68
Belgian Congo 22 32 22 13 13 13
Paraguay 28 24 19 19 12 10 10 7
Greece 25 30 69 95 85 66 54 77
San Salvador 20 20 16 22 24 24
Costa Rica 18 15 12 10 14 11
Guatemala 15 10 30 11 10 7 9 8
Source:
Przegląd Piwowarsko-Słodowniczy: organ Związku Piwowarów w Polsce 1935 wrzesień R.1 Nr1, page 14.

 

 

5 comments:

Brian Callaghan said...

How come so much beer produced in the USA during Prohibition?

Anonymous said...

Brian Callaghab -- they were allowed to sell super-low alcohol beer. They could also sell malt syrup to people alledgedly for baked goods, although it was widely known to be for home brewing.

Whether that accounts for all of that amoount, I don't know.

Daniel Boisvert said...

Non-alcoholic beer maybe?

Arnold Moodenbaugh said...

It looks like there might be a problem with the US statistics. The relative stability from 1920 to 1929, and then a factor of 3 increase to 1930 and 31 looks suspicious. The criteria for beer produced might have changed. Real beer could only be for export or medicinal purposes. It's not clear whether the statistics include unfermented wort and/or near beer. Production from Dutch Schultz (Allentown), Al Capone (Chicago), and other underworld sources probably aren't well accounted for.

Anonymous said...

Actually, the US production figures for the entire Prohibition era are (1920-1932) suspect. According to the Master Brewers Association of America a high of 9.23 million barrels (1920) and a low of 2.77 million barrels (1932) of "non-alcoholic “cereal beverage” containing less than 0.5% alcohol by volume" were produced during that time. They don't call it beer, and nobody would have at the time. The Polish numbers are, I think, utter nonsense.