Town vs. country

Sorry, nothing exciting. Just more ridiculous detail about Dutch interwar brewing.  I find it dead interesting, so you'll have to put up with it. If you haven't simply already buggered off.

The great thing about the Amstel output spreadsheets is that the numbers for Amsterdam and the rest of Holland are listed separately. Revealing very different patterns of consumption. Really very different. Much bigger than I would have predicted. And some unexpectedly popular styles.

In overall sales, Pils was easily the most popular, accounting for just shy of 50%. But that hides very different preferences in the city of Amsterdam. In the capital, Pils was much less popular. And was outsold 3 to 1 by Donker Lagerbier. That was a 3.5% ABV dark Lager. Call my gob smacked. A weedy dark beer was the most popular as late as 1939? I'm now wondering what Heineken's sales were in the city. Did they also mostly sell a weaker dark beer?

It's weirdly similar to the situation in London, where Dark Mild - which was a very similar strength and colour to Donker Lagerbier - was the drinker's favourite. You could call Donker Lagerbier Lager Dark Mild.

Amstel only really sold two beers in Amsterdam: Donker Lagerbier and Pils. Only one other beer managed more than a 1% share: Munchener. While the two favourites took more than 97%.

In the rest of the country, the picture was very different. Sales were still dominated by a small number of beers. Three, in this case: Pils, Licht Lagerbier and Donker Lagerbier. Combined, a mere 95%. With Munchener, again, the only other type breaking the 1% barrier. Though much lower than its share in Amsterdam, Donker Lagerbier was still almost 25%.

Almost forgot. There was a big difference in the proportion of bottled beer: 9.33% in Amsterdam, 18.62% elsewhere.

All this fascinates me. Sorry.

Amstel beer sales in Amsterdam in 1939
Beer	production		D Stoopenbier	total	%
	draught	bottled	draught
Oud Bruin		6.83		6.83	0.01%
Meibier	78.12	33.76	2.25	114.13	0.21%
Pilsener	11,046.72	1,952.51	227.55	13,226.78	24.78%
Munchener	636.4	234.48	25.05	895.93	1.68%
Bock	229.03	190.88	24.1	444.01	0.83%
Stout	1.77			<1 .77="" td="">	0.00%
Donker Lager	36,565.82	2,116.34		38,682.16	72.48%
Licht Lager					0.00%
Maastrictsch Oud					0.00%
Total	48,557.86	4,534.80	278.95	53,371.61
Source:
Amstel Litermaat, registers houdende specificaties van de maandproductie, onderverdeeld naar soort van bestemming, met jaaroverzichten held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1506 538.

Amstel beer sales in the Provinces in 1939
Beer	production		D Stoopenbier	total	%
	draught	bottled	draught
Oud Bruin	463.39	1,427.93		1,891.32	0.94%
Meibier	249.11	236.63	32.65	518.39	0.26%
Pilsener	84,712.90	14,170.87	2,295.80	101,179.57	50.15%
Munchener	1,816.91	1,288.29	166.65	3,271.85	1.62%
Bock	550.72	862.08	153	1,565.80	0.78%
Stout	86.49			86.49	0.04%
Donker Lager	40,692.42	4,228.10		44,920.52	22.26%
Licht Lager	37,735.07	9,050.41		46,785.48	23.19%
Maastrictsch Oud	1,551.00			1,551.00	0.77%
Total	167,858.01	31,264.31	2,648.10	201,770.42
Source:
Amstel Litermaat, registers houdende specificaties van de maandproductie, onderverdeeld naar soort van bestemming, met jaaroverzichten held at the Amsterdamse Stadtsarchief, document number 1506 538.