Dutch beer production by type 1938 - 1954 (again)

Yes. Time for even more numbers.  No respite quite yet.

Here’s a different breakdown of Dutch beer sales. This time, not by strength category but by other characteristics.

Dark and pale are pretty easy to pin down, as are draught and bottled. Not so sure about bitter and sweet. Pils is obviously the former and Oud Bruin the latter. Not so sure about where Lagerbier fits in. Based on the number, it looks like sweet must include Donker Lagerbier.

The obvious post-war trends were moves from dark to pale, sweet to bitter and draught to bottled. I’m shocked that pre-war dark beers accounted for almost 50% of the Dutch market. I would never have guessed that. Nor that such a high percentage of beer was sold on draught. Even in the UK, where draught was the norm, a higher percentage of beer was sold in bottled form on the 1940s.

It looks like there was a switch from drinking in the pub to drinking at home in the 1950s, something which happened in many European countries.

Dutch beer production by type 1938 - 1954 (hl)
Year	Dark	Pale	Bitter	Sweet	Draught	Bottled	Total
1938	585,328	684,028	685,477	583,879	-	-	1,269,356
1939	660,662	737,449	738,963	659,148	-	-	1,398,111
1946	-	-	-	-	1,438,471	350,935	1,789,406
1947	553,671	1,045,631	-	-	1,042,101	557,201	1,599,302
1948	368,958	940,992	948,747	361,203	768,153	541,797	1,309,950
1949	230,732	776,743	780,475	227,300	574,158	433,627	1,007,785
1950	223,288	845,174	847,605	220,857	606,821	461,641	1,068,462
1951	211,405	871,248	873,595	209,058	608,210	474,443	1,082,653
1952	213,720	910,789	913,422	211,087	597,964	526,545	1,124,509
1953	237,155	1,046,593	1,049,076	234,672	645,166	638,253	1,283,419
1954	235,527	1,175,005	1,177,183	233,349	694,341	716,191	1,410,532
Source:
De Nederlandse Brouwindustrie in Cijfers, by Dr. H. Hoelen, Centraal Brouwerij Kantoor, 1955, held at the Amsterdam City Archives, page 41.

 

Dutch beer production by type 1938 - 1954 (%)
Year	Dark	Pale	Bitter	Sweet	Draught	Bottled
1938	46.11%	53.89%	54.00%	46.00%	-	-
1939	47.25%	52.75%	52.85%	47.15%	-	-
1946	-	-	-	-	80.39%	19.61%
1947	34.62%	65.38%	-	-	65.16%	34.84%
1948	28.17%	71.83%	72.43%	27.57%	58.64%	41.36%
1949	22.89%	77.07%	77.44%	22.55%	56.97%	43.03%
1950	20.90%	79.10%	79.33%	20.67%	56.79%	43.21%
1951	19.53%	80.47%	80.69%	19.31%	56.18%	43.82%
1952	19.01%	80.99%	81.23%	18.77%	53.18%	46.82%
1953	18.48%	81.55%	81.74%	18.28%	50.27%	49.73%
1954	16.70%	83.30%	83.46%	16.54%	49.23%	50.77%
Source:
De Nederlandse Brouwindustrie in Cijfers, by Dr. H. Hoelen, Centraal Brouwerij Kantoor, 1955, held at the Amsterdam City Archives, page 41.