UK sales of packaged beer by strength and type

More lovely numbers today. Again about beer sales by type. But this time of packaged beer (bottled and canned) rather than draught.

I would have included some older numbers as well. Except in the older figures the types were defined differently. Which is a bit irritating.

Let's look at Bitter first. Which is now split into four classes. I assume that the first three remain the same:

Class I <= 1034º
Class II 1035º - 1039º
Class III >= 1040º

I'm guessing that class IV was >=1050º.

Just as with draught beer, since 1990 there's been a noticeable shift from Ordinary Bitter to Best Bitter. With the latter taking the lead in 2011. The strongest class Starts out with minimal sales in 1990, dropping to nothing in 2011. Not really sure what the pooint of the category is when there's nothing in it for half the years.

The Stout figures are fascinating. Kicking off with a very reasonable 7% in 1971. But falling to not much over 1% in the early 2000s, before rising again in the 2010s. There is a simple explanation for the collapse: Guinness.

That 7% figure will have been mostly bottled Guinness. Which was available in every pub. At a time when draught Guinness wasn't very common. The rise of draught Guinness will have really eaten into bottled Guinness sales. Hence the dramatic drop. That doesn't explain recovery in the 2020s, though.

In Lager there's also a shift from standard to premium strength. With the latter taking the lead in 2000. Ending in 2024 with sales almost treble those of Cooking Lager. While the super-strong Lagers of class IV show a steady decline from not very much to fuck all.

In the last few years there's been growth on low- and non-alcoholic beer. And, in 2024, it caught up with bottled Stout. Considering how much it's been pushed and how many brands there are out there, its market share isn't that impressive.

I wonder where all the trendy craft IPAs and Pale Ales fit into these figures. I'm guessing that they're lumped in with Bitter.

UK sales of packaged beer by strength and type
Year	Bitter		Strong ale & barley wine	Stout	Lager			No/low alc beer	Total packaged
					standard	premium
1971	16.1		0.6	7.0	2.8			-	26.5
1980	9.7		0.5	3.2	5.4	2.3		-	21.2
	Bitter I + II	Bitter III	Bitter IV		Lager I + II	Lager III	Lager IV
1990	5.5	2.4	0.2	1.7	9.9	7.9		0.8	28.4
2000	3.9	2.2	0.1	1.4	13.3	15.3	1.4	0.2	37.7
2001	3.7	2.3	0.1	1.4	13.8	16.7	1.3	0.2	39.4
2002	3.4	2.3	0.1	1.3	14.3	18.6	1.3	0.2	41.4
2003	3.3	2.3	0.1	1.4	14.9	19.5	1.3	0.2	42.9
2004	3.2	2.2	0.1	1.4	15.6	20.0	1.3	0.2	44.0
2005	3.1	2.3	0.1	1.3	16.6	20.1	1.2	0.2	44.8
2006	3.0	2.4	0.1	1.4	17.5	20.8	1.1	0.2	46.3
2007	3.2	2.4	0.1	1.4	18.8	20.5	1.0	0.2	47.6
2008	3.2	2.6	0.1	1.4	19.8	21.7	1.0	0.2	49.8
2009	3.2	2.8	0.1	1.5	19.6	21.9	0.7	0.2	50.1
2010	3.0	3.0	0.1	1.6	20.1	23.1	0.8	0.2	51.8
2011	2.9	3.1	0.0	1.5	19.5	24.0	0.8	0.3	52.2
2012	2.8	3.4	0.0	1.6	19.1	24.3	0.8	0.2	52.3
2013	2.9	3.7	0.0	1.6	20.1	24.4	0.8	0.2	53.6
2014	2.7	4.0	0.0	1.4	20.2	24.9	0.6	0.3	54.2
2015	2.6	4.5	0.0	1.7	19.2	26.0	0.5	0.3	55.0
2016	2.5	4.9	0.0	1.7	18.2	27.2	0.4	0.4	55.3
2017	2.3	4.9	0.0	1.7	18.1	28.8	0.4	0.5	56.6
2018	2.1	4.9	0.0	1.6	17.6	30.8	0.4	0.7	58.1
2019	1.9	4.7	0.0	1.5	16.5	33.1	0.4	0.9	58.9
2020	2.5	6.4	0.0	2.4	22.9	43.8	0.4	1.1	79.6
2021	2.2	5.9	0.0	2.3	19.2	41.0	0.4	1.3	72.3
2022	1.7	5.0	0.0	1.9	14.8	36.9	0.3	1.4	62.0
2023	1.5	4.8	0.0	2.1	14.0	37.3	0.3	1.6	61.5
2024	1.6	4.5	0.0	2.1	13.1	37.6	0.3	2.1	61.4
Source:
The Brewers' Society Statistical Handbook 2025, page 16.