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Sunday, 1 May 2022

UK Beer Imports in the late 19th century

I don’t have exact details on the source of imports. Just some hints, in the form of the port of destination.

In most cases the port of destination was in Northern Europe. The beer coming from Copenhagen and Christiania must have been Danish. With the others, it’s a bit more guesswork. That coming from Hamburg and Bremen was probably German.

Where the port was in Belgium or Holland, things are much less certain. I’m sure some being shipped from Amsterdam and Rotterdam was Dutch. But I’m sure some was also German. As Belgium had no great reputation for beer, the chances are that most, or all, of the beer coming through Antwerp and Ostend was German.

It’s interesting how much was being imported through the Clyde, which was presumably intended for the Scottish market. Perhaps a sign of the early popularity of Lager in Scotland. And the links between Carlsberg and William Younger, given that more than 50% of the beer coming from Denmark was landed on the Clyde.

UK beer imports in 1897
From London, pkgs. Liverpool, pkge. Hull pkgs. Harwich, pkgs. O. E. Ports, pkgs. Dublin. pkgs. Clyde. &c. pkgs. Total, pkgs. %
Hamburg 7,885 3,977 2,215 700 1,604 457 908 17,746 12.42%
Bremen 20,827 1,075 1,351 - - - 3,825 27,078 18.95%
Rotterdam 18,593 171 4,129 11,183 725 9,098 1,831 45,730 32.01%
Antwerp 4,574 732 18 4,576 672 - 3 10,575 7.40%
Amsterdam 14,718 282 5,655 - 2,754 - 3,064 26,473 18.53%
Copenhagen 1,882 106 2,033 - - - 5,275 9,296 6.51%
Christiania 154 - 618 - 14 - 66 852 0.60%
New York 100 45 - - - - 50 195 0.14%
Ostend 4,934 - - - - - - 4,934 3.45%
Totals, 1897 73,667 6,388 16,019 16,459 5,769 9,555 15,022 142,879  
Do. 1896 63,267 10,779 13,468 14,026 4,997 8,250 14,655 129,442  
Do. 1895 55,429 11,868 11,775 17,082 4,079 8,282 14,130 122,645  
Source:
Brewers' Journal 1898, page 64.

 



3 comments:

  1. Rob Sterowski1 May 2022 at 02:01

    If beer is coming from Hamburg or Rotterdam it would make more sense to land it at Leith, otherwise you’d have to go round the north coast of Scotland, unless you took it along the canal to the Clyde, and I don’t think that was big enough for freight ships. Maybe all Scottish ports are being lumped together here.

    I could be totally wrong as I know alarmingly little about freight transport.

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  2. Anonymous1 May 2022 at 08:30

    "As Belgium had no great reputation for beer, the chances are that most, or all, of the beer coming through Antwerp and Ostend was German."

    When did Belgian beer start selling in the UK? Would it have been when Stella expanded, or even later than that?

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  3. Anonymous2 May 2022 at 06:41

    Christiania was the name for Oslo in the period, so wouldn't that beer then be Norwegian, rather than Danish?

    ReplyDelete