Random English labels

I'm afraid you're not even going to get some of my pathetic sketches this time. Just the briefest of bullshit and then some pretty labels.

The reason? I've another trip coming up. And I need to bash out some quick posts.

The reason I have so many fresh labels is another matter. I've been making a real effort to get through my floor beers. That's the beers clogging up the living room floor. It's incredible how quickly it can change from just a couple to 150. I've no idea how that can happen. It's almost as if they're breeding.

Below are labels from some of the English beers in the pile I've finished off. It's stuff I picked up on a couple of my UK trips. To be honest, I have trouble remembering all the different trips. Thus year will be even worse. Atlanta and Asheville later this week. Edinburgh a week or so after I return from that. Sheffield at the end of June. Berlin and Newark in August. Washington DC in September, maybe. Chile in October. I think that's about all I currently have planned.

Incidentally, despite my already crzay schedule, if you're a brewer or home brewer club in Europe and would like to host a Macbeth event, get in touch. I'm sure I can squeeze the odd weekend in.

Beer production 1900 - 1927

Bailey (of Boak and Bailey) has helpfully transformed one of my dull accumulations of numbers into a prettty chart. It's much easier to see the trends in this pictorial form.

I've just noticed that the English line looks rather like the side view of a trench. How appropriate, given the trough represents the war years.

One note. They didn't stop brewing in Ireland in 1922. That's just the year the southern counties became independent.

Scottish beer exports 1916 - 1933

I warned you there would be more numbers. I have these episodes where I go statistic crazy for a week or two. The family have learnt to ignore when an attack strikes. Feel free to do the same if numbers aren't your suitcase.

Below are the sort-of figures for Scottish exports that I thromised. Why sort-of? Because, while exports clearly make up the bulk of the figure, there are other categories of duty-free beer included. They're the best I can do, basically. In the last column I've included the actual amount of beer exported.

Well, almost, because it's in standard barrels. As are all the other figures. That's a nominal 36 gallon barrel with an OG of 1055. So if the beer A actually had an OG of 1027.5, 1 standard barrel of beer A would be two bulk barrels. Is that clear?

In most years the duty-free beer figure is about 10% large than the exported figure. Though there are a couple of years where it's around 20%. Very roughly, knocking 10% off the duty-free number should get us close to the number of standard barrels exported.

The period 1921 to 1930 is revealing. Scottish exports increased steadily while English exports remained fairly flat, but with a small decrease. 1927 being the turning point, where Scottish exports, probably for the first time ever, outstripped English ones.

That's an incredible achievement for Scottish brewing. remember that they were competing against the likes of Bass, Worthington and Whitbread. Much larger companies with far larger resources. Even the Scottish giants - McEwan, William Younger and Tennent - were much smaller concerns than their large English rivals.

Here's the table:

Beer Exported on Drawback and Free of Duty
	England and Wales	Scotland	Ireland	United Kingdom	UK exports
1916	581,947	174,595	46,371	802,913
1917	314,333	73,896	30,095	418,324
1918	174,408	30,379	16,185	220,972
1919	470,794	195,995	33,821	700,610
1920	312,868	146,726	16,698	485,292	390,248
1921	215,719	92,193	12,648	320,560
1922	207,882	117,978	10,239	336,099	260,914
1923	176,913	108,544	2,270	287,727	257,454
1924	158,373	132,889	753	292,015	264,003
1925	180,731	145,603	415	326,749	290,824
1926	178,155	168,609	305	347,069	283,033
1927	156,258	179,242	232	338,732	287,445
1928	170,728	193,255		363,983	328,029
1929	176,381	223,638		400,019	352,942
1930	173,988	204,345		378,333	328,524
1931	159,278	147,527		306,805	289,516
1932	136,231	133,240		269,471	244,525
1933	117,363	126,254		243,617	217,981
Sources:
Brewers' Journal 1919, page 65.
Brewers' Journal 1922, page 71.
Brewers' Journal 1925, page 83.
Brewers' Journal 1928, page 87.
Brewers' Journal 1928, page 87.
Brewers' Journal 1934, page 162.
Brewers' Almanack 1928, p. 115
Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 57

I don't I've quite worked the number mania out of my system yet. Prepare yourselves for more.

British beer production and average OG 1900 - 1933

It seems like there's something I've not done for a while. Something that used to be very important. (No, it's not humour or entertainment.) I remember - a big fat juicy table, dripping with number grease. Best put that right.

My weekend was great fun. I spent it scanning 1920's and 1930's editions of the Brewers' Journal. "What are you doing with those stinky books, dad?" Lexie asked. "Harvesting numbers." "Dad, that sounds really boring."

It's not exactly my idea of fun, either. But the information I grab is. There was some really useful stuff, hidden away in the old Journals. That's filled a few holes in my Brewers' Almanack derived tables. Like the one below. The larger set of data has revealed some intriguing points.

The first thing I'd like to point out is the disparity in average OG in the different parts of the UK on the eve of WW I. The average OG in Scotland was four points lower than in England and a massive 18 points lower than in Ireland. You can blame Guinness for the high figure in Ireland. Their flagship Extra Stout had an OG of 1075º.

But what I find really fascinating is the difference in the gravity dropped caused by WW I. Between 1914 and 1921, the average OG in Scotland only dropped 5 points. While in England it dropped by 10 points. That's a fall in gravity of 19.3% in England and just 11.2% in Scotland. I wonder why that was.

I've a possible explanation. Exports. The proportion of beer exported was much higher in Scotland. And what was the difference between export and domestic beer between the wars? Export beer continued to be brewed at pre-WW I strengths.

I've sort of got figures for Scottish exports in the 1920's and 1930's. Sort of. I've figures for the number of barrels upon which no duty was charges. The usual reason for that is that the beer was exported. But that's not the only one. The figures for duty-free barrels is about 10% higher than the figures for beer exported. I'll be returning to these figures in detail later, but one point is very significant: after 1927 Scotland was exporting more beer than England.

Beer produced by brewers for sale and average OG 1900 - 1933
	England		Scotland		Ireland		United Kingdom
Year	bulk barrels	average OG	bulk barrels	average OG	bulk barrels	average OG	bulk barrels	average OG
1900	32,146,769	-	2,289,048	-	2,669,225	-	37,105,042	1054.93
1905	30,594,189	1052.54	2,021,374	1049.6	2,799,960	1063.49	35,415,523	1053.23
1910	29,284,045	1052.3	1,956,659	1048.48	3,059,210	1064.78	34,299,914	1053.2
1911	29,679,204	1052.03	2,028,710	1048.18	3,215,374	1065.22	34,923,288	1053.02
1912	30,991,776	1051.76	2,153,569	1048.11	3,330,174	1065.43	36,475,519	1052.72
1913	30,758,800	1051.52	2,119,666	1047.85	3,417,851	1065.73	36,296,317	1052.64
1914	31,737,384	1051.69	2,288,481	1047.67	3,532,902	1065.93	37,558,767	1052.80
1915	29,310,783	1051.16	2,042,477	1046.85	3,412,520	1065.93	34,765,780	1052.35
1916	26,914,428	1050.49	1,917,148	1046.45	3,279,032	1066.43	32,110,608	1051.88
1917	25,497,825	1047.01	1,816,003	1043.16	2,850,170	1065.69	30,163,998	1048.54
1918	16,340,250	1038.25	1,141,114	1036.74	1,603,679	1057.89	19,085,043	1039.81
1919	20,133,048	1029.35	1,325,439	1029.77	1,806,046	1044.43	23,264,533	1030.55
1920	29,891,845	1038.57	2,186,604	1038.83	2,969,498	1043.35	35,047,947	1039.41
1921	28,927,178	1041.72	2,096,080	1042.31	3,481,312	1050.18	34,504,570	1042.61
1922	25,468,663	1042.21	1,770,175	1041.68	2,939,893	1049.44	30,178,731	1042.88
1923	22,334,328	1042.82	1,598,339	1041.36	15,984	1037.5	23,948,651	1042.72
1924	23,609,228	1043.18	1,800,687	1041.27	15,102	1037.69	25,425,017	1043.04
1925	24,827,074	1043.24	1,895,535	1041.53	12,216	1038.4	26,734,825	1043.12
1926	24,871,187	1043.34	1,884,933	1041.87	9,490	1036.91	26,765,610	1043.23
1927	23,418,640	1043.35	1,673,576	1042.3	8,245	1038.11	25,100,461	1043.28
	England & N. Ireland		Scotland				United Kingdom
1924	23,624,330	1043.17	1,800,687	1041.27			25,425,017	1043.04
1925	24,839,290	1043.24	1,895,535	1041.53			26,734,825	1043.12
1926	24,880,677	1043.34	1,884,933	1041.87			26,765,610	1043.23
1927	23,426,885	1043.35	1,673,576	1042.30			25,100,461	1043.28
1928	23,610,029	1043.34	1,749,725	1042.95			25,359,754	1043.31
1929	22,803,003	1043.20	1,727,152	1043.47			24,530,155	1043.21
1930	23,180,543	1043.01	1,803,625	1043.55			24,984,168	1043.05
1931	22,129,205	1042.68	1,651,579	1042.84			23,780,784	1042.69
1932	19,277,230	1041.14	1,398,153	1041.86			20,675,383	1041.19
1933	16,639,123	1039.59	1,204,456	1041.07			17,843,579	1039.69
Sources:
Brewers' Journal 1920, page 345.
Brewers' Journal 1921, page 246.
Brewers' Almanack 1928, page 110.
Brewers' Journal 1934, page 11.

Wondering why beer production fell so much in 1932 and 1933? A disastrous increase in beer tax which caused output to fall so much that, in fact, less tax was collected. There's a lesson there.

I'll be returning to numbers soon. I've neglected them for far too long.

Edinburgh's chilly climate

Scotland is icy cold. Everyone knows that. And that's why they fermented their beer so cold.

How much colder would you expect the ambient temperature to be in Edinburgh than London? If they fermented 10º F cooler, that seems a reasonable guess. 10º F is about 6º C. The biggest monthly difference is actually 5.5º C.

Here's an easy-to-understand table:

Average temperature by month (º C)
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
London	6.5	7	9	11	14	17	19	19.5	16.5	13.5	9.5	6.5
Edinburgh	3.5	3.5	5	6.5	9.5	12	13.5	14	12	8.5	6	3
difference	-3	-3.5	-4	-4.5	-4.5	-5	-5.5	-5.5	-4.5	-5	-3.5	-3.5
Source:
MSN News and Weather

But here's something even more intriguing. The difference in temperature between Edinburgh and Burton:

Average temperature by month (º C)
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
Burton	4	4.5	6.5	8	11.5	14	16.5	16.5	14	11.5	6.5	5
Edinburgh	3.5	3.5	5	6.5	9.5	12	13.5	14	12	8.5	6	3
difference	-0.5	-1	-1.5	-1.5	-2	-2	-3	-2.5	-2	-3	-0.5	-2
Source:
MSN News and Weather

Not a huge difference, is there? So why didn't they ferment cold in Burton?

UK beer production 1850 - 1922 : in graphs

Mike made a very good point yesterday. That some of my numbers would work better in graphs.

He's right.

So here are some graphs.

This is the graph of beer production per head of population:




That's better. Much clearer.

Beer output by UK region in 1849

Hooray! Today's the last part of my rambling series about the geographical distribution of brewing in 1849.

It's hard to imagine now the dominance of London brewers in the early part of the 19th century. As you can see in the table below, more than a fifth of the UK's beer came from London. More than three times as much beer was brewed in Britain's capital than in Ireland and Scotland combined.

Of course, this is just a snapshot. The situation changes significantly as the century progresses. With other brewing centres such as Burton and Dublin rivalling London in size. When Bass in Burton and Guinness in Dublin went past the 1 million barrel mark, the days of London's supremacy were over. Its went into a long, slow decline that only ended a couple of years ago.

You may have noticed that I've separated out Wales from England. While its beer output lagged a quite bit behind England's relative to population,it was way ahead of Scotland and Ireland. See, I can understand why Ireland would do poorly in such a comparison. It was the least developed part of the UK. But Scotland and Wales had industrialised. Why were their beer industries doing so relatively badly?

The relative contribution of Ireland and Scotland increased during the second half of the 19th century. I'm started to assemble some figures to demonstrate this change. I'll publish them as soon as I've finished, but it may take a while.

UK beer output and population, year ending October 1849
	output (barrels)	% of output	population in 1851	% population	barrels per head of population
London	3,144,954	21.50%	2,362,200	8.63%	1.33
England	13,223,059	90.40%	16,769,400	61.26%	0.79
Wales	365,299	2.50%	1,163,000	4.25%	0.31
Scotland	435,792.5	2.98%	2,889,000	10.55%	0.15
Ireland	602,437.5	4.12%	6,554,000	23.94%	0.09
total	14,626,587	100.00%	27,375,400	100.00%	0.53
actual beer output	14,691,734
Sources:
"Statistics of British commerce" by Braithwaite Poole, 1852, pages 5 and 6.
http://www.populstat.info/

Publican brewers

In a recent post about Scottish Twopenny, I mentioned that publican brewers had disappeared much earlier in Scotland than in England. I knew there must be figures somewhere. Today I found them.

Brewers, Vuctuallers, etc 10th October 1848 to 10th October 1849 totals collected
	number of persons				Number of persons who brew their own beer
			licensed to sell beer			licensed to sell beer
Collections	Brewers	Victuallers	To be drunk on the premises	Not to be drunk on the premises	Victuallers	To be drunk on the premises	Not to be drunk on the premises	Bushels of malt consumed by the whole
England	2,257	59,335	34,800	3,270	25,985	12,201	972	27,676,714
Scotland	154	15,081			181			871,586
Ireland	96	14,080						1,204,875
total	2,507	88,496	34,800	3,270	26,166	12,201	972	29,753,175
Source:
"Statistics of British commerce" by Braithwaite Poole, 1852, page 5.

Column 6 gives publican brewers. 25,985 in England and Wales, 181 in Scotland, none in Ireland. Pretty conclusive evidence. But it gets even better than that. Because the figures are broken down even further. The picture they paint is even more captivating.

Brewers, Vuctuallers, etc 10th October 1848 to 10th October 1849, England
	number of persons				Number of persons who brew their own beer
			licensed to sell beer			licensed to sell beer
Collections	Brewers	Victuallers	To be drunk on the premises	Not to be drunk on the premises	Victuallers	To be drunk on the premises	Not to be drunk on the premises	Bushels of malt consumed by the whole
Barnstaple	9	595	236	24	547	182	8	158,281
Bath	43	722	451	139	415	151	29	679,127
Bedford	54	1101	778	78	153	54	10	399,513
Bristol	25	666	872	77	453	207	10	461,372
Cambridge	86	1264	978	132	151	105	33	624,064
Canterbury	53	882	345	55	11	22	5	310,169
Chester	43	1037	358	14	592	187	1	221,332
Cornwall	11	747	277	21	505	128	3	154,368
Coventry	23	1497	519	65	1334	398	31	542,648
Cumberland	24	1352	235	29	128	27	25	195,148
Derby	20	1166	516	31	1139	454	12	564,541
Dorset	53	511	477	125	213	76	35	259,871
Durham	91	2068	304	38	404	34		247,514
Essex	50	738	459	147	158	108	63	286,576
Exeter	25	737	203	23	529	63	3	240,101
Gloucester	28	774	701	82	555	420	34	345,719
Grantham	55	1104	656	57	603	186	16	385,106
Halifax	57	1334	1258	42	914	872	37	488,975
Hants	63	725	700	126	98	168	41	433,576
Hereford	4	756	294	11	701	265	6	113,781
Hartford	47	1020	840	53	40	32	16	554,992
Hull	74	1114	227	36	154	10	1	208,463
Isle of Wight	61	769	637	96	103	157	37	463,658
Lancaster	29	1109	865	21	760	286	1	507,852
Leeds	25	1015	848	52	900	570	39	615,724
Lichfield	11	1030	1008	35	1001	849	16	305,345
Lincoln	49	915	367	60	604	110	13	306,665
Liverpool	77	1551	1205	22	19	14	1	763,123
London	79	4223	2054	65	1	50	8	6,289,908
Lynn	70	1156	866	80	102	70	15	640,092
Manchester	96	1706	3102	157	971	1074	54	979,907
Newcastle	84	1949	280	29	145	5	3	404,183
Northampton	24	1038	381	122	761	175	37	325,441
Northwich	30	1197	706	16	668	149	1	392,040
Norwich	49	1441	329	76	87	33	22	372,053
Oxford	29	891	393	99	421	121	33	337,695
Plymouth	40	948	476	56	431	42	6	345,250
Reading	41	888	760	115	51	54	21	496,466
Rochester	77	1191	849	74	14	20	6	443,088
Salisbury	28	577	264	101	351	117	44	297,956
Salop	3	600	376	15	569	331	4	266,350
Sheffield	32	1428	584	84	726	152	10	492,019
Stafford	30	772	782	6	733	592	1	638,268
Stourbridge	7	1383	1460	62	1328	1385	34	799,499
Suffolk	52	728	409	111	259	170	66	328,776
Surrey	83	1108	977	91	7	48	21	846,841
Sussex	71	829	693	90	66	80	29	465,762
Wales, East	40	1781	1523	19	1537	882	1	375,006
Wales, Middle	1	724	104	1	657	94		91,150
Wales, North	30	1139	162	7	627	23		151,606
Wales, South	8	1293	45	4	1296	26		112,835
Worcester	5	531	366	53	501	309	23	205,813
York	58	1515	245	46	492	64	7	241,106
total	2,257	59,335	34,800	3,270	25,985	12,201	972	27,176,714
total (given in source)	2,257	59,335	34,800	3,270	25,985	12,201	972	27,676,714
Source:
"Statistics of British commerce" by Braithwaite Poole, 1852, page 4.

Look at the column for brewing victuallers. The areas with large numbers - over 900 - are all in the Midlands, the North and Wales: Coventry, Derby, Halifax, Lichfield, Manchester, Stourbridge, Leeds, Wales East, Wales South. The Areaes with the fewest - fewer than 100 - are all, except for Liverpool, in the Southeast: Canterbury, Hants, Hartford, Liverpool, Norwich, Reading, Surrey, London, Rochester, Sussex.

Most significant is the area with by far the fewest publican brewers: London with just 1. Brewing was already completely in the hands of commercial brewers and pub brewing as good as extinct.

The pattern is much more complex, with enormous regional variations, than I would have imagined. But I can state this with some confidence: in some regions of Britain pub breweries disappeared in the first half of the 19th century.