Malt production in the 1970s

As I've finished recounting my last holiday, I cab crack on with boring you about the 1970s. This time, it's the turn of malt.

"Keg!" is coming along nicely. I've over 40,000 words and I've hardly even started on the personal memories and recipes. Of which there will be more than I expected. I'll have recipes from 12 breweries, in total. Somewhere around 50 or 60 recipes in all.

Let's get on with the extract.

On average, around a fifth of the UK barley harvest was used for malting. Even that wasn’t all dedicated to beer, as considerable quantities were also used for distilling. As we can see in table below.

Much malting was still being performed by brewers and distillers. A lot more than I would have expected. A massive 44% in 1971 and, despite declining a little, it was still 37% in 1979. And in absolute terms had actually increased.

I’m quite surprised to see just how much malt was used in distilling. In some years, such as 1973 and 1974, it was only slightly less than that used in brewing.

My guess is that the malt imports were almost all in the form of lager malt or other continental malt types. I can’t see UK brewers using foreign-made pale malt in their beer.

I’d love to know what the destination of the malt exports were. Presumably to countries which were brewing British-style beers.

What else was malt used for other than brewing and distilling? Well, an obvious one is malt vinegar. A fair bit must have been for that. And there are some foods – such as biscuits – which can contain malt. 

Malt production and usage (thousand tonnes)
Year	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979
Malt Production:
Brewer-Maltsters	230	247	271	247	250	265	263	257	301
Distiller-Maltsters	270	284	291	300	225	245	256	321	291
Sale-Maltsters	640	745	810	915	912	885	877	984	1,019
Total	1,140	1,276	1,372	1,462	1,387	1,395	1,396	1,562	1,611
Malt Imports	31	27	49	78	35	30	46	42	61
Malt Exports	94	94	141	138	119	175	130	164	189
Malt Requirements:
For Brewing	610	623	661	689	712	720	727	735	752
For Distilling	521	561	631	692	566	520	559	536	651
Other purposes	53	52	57	59	61	80	79	70	69
Total	1,184	1,236	1,349	1,440	1,339	1,320	1,365	1,341	1,472
Source:
The Brewers' Society UK Statistical Handbook 1980, page 26.