UK Imports of Hops 1889-98

As I've told you many times, the UK imported a shitload of hops in the second half of the 19th century. Here are some numbers to confirm that.

We'll kick off by looking at how many hops were being used by UK brewers, how many were home-grown and how many imported.

You can see that domestic production of hops varied enormously - from 280,000 cwts to 637,000 hops. Which, as consumption of hops averaged 623,000 a year, was clearly insufficient for the needs of UK brewers. Hence the need for large volumes of imports. Running at an average of 184,000 cwts. Or around 30% of the hops used.

Next, we'll look at the source of those hops.

You'll see that the vast majority came from just five countries: the USA, Germany, Belgium, Holland and France. With small quantities coming from all other countries. The principal suppliers being the USA and Belgium. I'm surprised that Holland was supplying so many hops. Well, any at all. As Holland isn't exactly renowned for hop cultivation. Incredible that it was providing more than Germany.

In most years covered in the table, more than 50% of UK imports came from the USA. Peaking at 70% in 1895. Given what I've seen in brewing records, that comes as no surprise. Though, for the same reason, it was shocking how few came from Germany. Perhaps my thinking has been distorted by all the time I've spent looking at William Younger records recently. They seemed to have a liking for German hops.

And that's it. This is the last post of more than two dozen that I've queued up to cover my trip to Australia with Andrew. Hopefully, I haven't broken anything while there. 

Consumption of Hops in the United Kingdom
	Area.	Production.	Net Imports of following Year.	Consumption.	Proportion of Foreign to Total Supply.
	Acres.	Cwts.	Cwta.	Cwts.	Per cent.
1888	58,490	281,291	181,343	462,634	39.20%
1889	57,724	497,811	175,584	673,345	26.10%
1890	53,961	283,629	185,526	469,165	39.50%
1891	56,142	436,716	170,834	613,550	28.80%
1592	56,259	413,259	185,716	598,975	31.00%
1893	57,564	414,929	168,316	583,245	28.90%
1894	59,535	636,846	204,087	840,933	24.30%
1895	58,940	553,206	193,738	747,134	25.90%
1896	54,217	453,188	148,610	601,848	24.70%
1897	50,863	411,086	223,747	634,833	35.20%
Average	56,370	438,215	184,350	622,565	29.60%
Source:
The Brewers' Journal vol. 36 1900, February 15th 1900, page 127.

 

Imports of Hops 1889-98 (cwts)
Year	USA	Germany	Belgium	Holland	France	All other Countries.	total	% from US
1889	77,529	20,492	38,858	47,463	14,401	641	199,384	38.88%
1890	73,448	25,129	40,498	38,527	10,383	2,043	190,028	38.65%
1891	80,226	17,199	42,637	35,355	15,893	3,956	195,266	41.09%
1592	80,829	11,691	39,044	38,384	12,206	5,353	187,507	43.11%
1893	141,819	3,785	37,351	15.214	2,481	3.742	185,455	76.47%
1894	109,731	12,053	33,622	26,164	5,980	1,606	189,156	58.01%
1895	153,046	15,400	25,411	19,564	2,816	874	217,111	70.49%
1896	135,822	13,011	32,984	19,912	3,996	1,316	207,041	65.60%
1897	84,905	15,881	36,787	20,667	5,160	755	164,155	51.72%
1898	101,535	8,280	30,151	9,169	1,644	3,357	154,136	65.87%
Source:
The Brewers' Journal vol. 36 1900, February 15th 1900, page 127.