Consumption of wine, beer and spirits in 1899

Got a new cast on my arm this morning. And they told me that I've broken a small bone in my hand, too. No big deal, as the same cast will take care of both. My typing ability is still limited. And I'm feeling a bit of a lazy git. More random statistics, then.

This time it's the consumption of various alcoholic drinks. Looking at the same six countries again. The total consumption figure really doesn't tell us much, as the countries vary massively in population. It's the per head figures that tell a story.

For example, that the French really liked their wine. 112 litres each is a fuck of a lot. That's a third of a litre a day. Or getting on for a half bottle. Such a figure is only possible if most of the population drinks every day. Which is, indeed, what people did in France. Drinking wine with meals, every day.

The UK falls far short of that. For the simple reason that most people didn't drink wine at all. That being the preserve of the better off. I would have expected Germany to score higher, though. Given that parts of the South are wine country. You can see that in the wine production figures. Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg were big producers. But those did make much more combined than number one wine state. Alsace Lorraine, the bit they'd just nicked from France.*

Rather surprisingly, Australians drank more wine than Germans. Well short of French levels, mind. I suppose they did make a lot. And they were a bunch of pissheads. The big question is: why weren't the French-speakers in Canada drinking wine? Because it was all imported?

The UK proudly heads the beer consumption table. 22 litres ahead of the Germans. And way head of the USA in third place. Pretty disappointing showing from the Aussies in fourth place. You'd expect all that sun to give them a thirst.**

The French are out in front again when it comes to spirits. Closely followed by the Germans. Particularly those in the North. Production of spirits was even more skewed than for wine. 82% was distilled in Prussia.*** It was a big state, but that's still a huge percentage.

I wouldn't have bet on the UK out-drinking the USA in the case of spirits. And what was it with Canada? They're bottom in every single category.

All I can add is: well done France. Do try to drink a little more beer, though.

Consumption of wine, beer and spirits in 1899
	Wine		Beer		Spirits
	Consumption	Per head	Consumption	Per head	Consumption	Per head
Country	hl	litres	hl	litres	hl	litres
United Kingdom	752,045	1.86	58,301,086	145.02	1,870,634	4.68
France	42,750,129	112.01	9,607,153	25.00	3,598,432	9.41
Germany	1,887,226	3.50	66,313,957	123.20	4,590,551	8.41
United States	778,821	1.05	44,106,974	59.10	3,085,825	4.18
Australian Colonies	205,525	4.77	2,082,113	48.19	148,609	3.45
Canada	20,230	0.36	858,876	16.37	152,746	2.95
Source:
The Brewers' Journal vol. 36 1900, February 15th 1900, page 205.

The original figures were in gallons. I thought hectolitres and litres are a bit more useful for most people.



* The Brewers' Journal vol. 36 1900, February 15th 1900, page 206.
** It rained every one of the twenty days I was in Australia this summer.
*** The Brewers' Journal vol. 36 1900, February 15th 1900, page 206. 

UK Beer production in the 1970s

Between 1970 and 1979, consumption of beer rose by just shy of 20%. Not just that, it rose every single year. Even in the really bad years of the middle of the decade, when you had things like the three-day week. Which reduced earnings, obviously. But doesn’t seem to have dried up drinkers’ thirst for beer.

Things were looking very rosy for UK brewing. In the period covered by the table, production rose by 18%, consumption by 16% and exports by almost 3%. The only area that was in decline were exports.

One thing that didn’t change really at all was average OG. It increased by just 0.07% between 1971 and 1980. It had been around 1037º since the early 1950s.

Before WW I, UK beer exports were amazingly consistent.at around half a million barrels per year. The war interrupted that trade and between the wars exports pootled along at around 250,000 barrels. After WW II, exports remained at a similar level until the 1960s, when they began to rise, the peak being in 1975.  Only in the period 1906 to 1913 had exports been greater.  

UK production, imports, exports and average OG 1971 - 1980 (barrels)
Year	production	average OG	imports	exports	consumption
1971	34,360,000	1036.90	2,011,980	445,669	35,926,311
1972	34,969,310	1036.90	2,056,116	430,873	36,594,553
1973	35,338,345	1037.00	2,357,628	450,789	37,245,184
1974	37,893,753	1037.10	1,834,025	444,019	39,283,759
1975	38,238,657	1037.30	1,807,125	537,892	39,507,890
1976	39,200,556	1037.50	1,878,853	523,926	40,555,483
1977	40,404,025	1037.50	1,564,733	528,634	41,440,124
1978	40,279,059	1037.60	1,562,993	490,379	41,351,673
1979	40,595,574	1037.60	1,678,406	478,677	41,795,303
1980	40,595,574	1037.60	1,575,906	458,550	41,712,930
% change	18.15%	0.07%	-21.67%	2.89%	16.11%
Sources:
“The Brewers' Society Statistical Handbook 1988” page 7.
Statistical Handbook of the British Beer & Pub Association 2005, p. 7

UK alcohol consumption 1979 - 2016

We've arrived at the final part of my look at alcohol consumption. Starting with the peak beer-drinking year of 1979 and ending with the 2016, the last year I have numbers for.

Through the 1980s, despite high levels of unemployment, beer consumption was pretty stable at around 110 litres per year. There was a slight decline in the 1990s, taking it down to 100 litres or so. 2000 saw a sharp drop to fewer than 90 litres. It recovered a little in the following years, but, after 2004, it was all downhill. Every year after than 2010, fewer than 70 litres were consumed. By 2016, consumption had fallen 46% from its 1979 peak.

The story for wine is quite different, with consumption rising until 2007, then declining a little and stabilising around 20 litres. Between 1979 and 2016, wine consumption increased by 60%. The arcs of wine and beer are quite different, implying that the decline in beer shrinking wasn't simply due to external economic factors. There seems to have been a definite move from beer to wine drinking.

Something similar can be seen with cider, which peaked in 2009. Though after that there was a considerable decrease. Even with that late fall, between 1979 and 2016 consumption increased by 65%.

Spirits are another story. Apart from a slight dip in the 1990s, consumption was pretty stable over the whole period.

Wondering what RTDs are? They're things like wine coolers and alcopops.

UK alcohol consumption 1979 - 2016
Year	Spirits	Wine	Beer	Cider	RTDs
1979	1.9	8.1	123.4	3.8
1980	1.8	8.1	118.3	3.8
1981	1.7	8.6	113	4.1
1982	1.6	8.7	109.8	4.8
1983	1.6	9.5	111.2	5.4
1984	1.6	10.4	110.9	5.4
1985	1.7	10.9	110.1	5.2
1986	1.7	11.3	109.7	5.3
1987	1.7	12	110.4	5.2
1988	1.8	12.4	110.9	4.9
1989	1.8	12.8	110.8	5.4
1990	1.7	12.5	113.9	6.4	0.3
1991	1.6	12.3	109.7	6.5	0.5
1992	1.5	12.6	105.9	7.6	0.8
1993	1.5	13.2	102.6	7.8	0.8
1994	1.6	13.6	104.8	8.3	0.9
1995	1.4	13.4	102.1	9.6	1.6
1996	1.4	14.1	103.2	9.7	3.1
1997	1.5	15.2	105.1	9.5	2
1998	1.4	15.7	100.9	9.5	2.1
1999	1.6	16.6	100.7	10.3	3.1
2000	1.6	17.2	88.4	10.2	4.8
2001	1.6	18.1	90.1	10	6.3
2002	1.7	19.5	91.9	10	6.5
2003	1.8	20	93.9	9.9	5.1
2004	1.9	21.8	92.1	10.2	4.9
2005	1.9	22.3	89.3	10.7	4
2006	1.7	21.3	86.2	12.4	3.1
2007	1.8	22.9	81.3	13.1	3
2008	1.8	22.4	77.6	13.6	2.4
2009	1.7	21	71.2	15.1	2
2010	1.8	21.2	68.5	14.8	2.4
2011	1.7	21	67.2	14.7	2.3
2012	1.7	20.8	67.4	13.7	2.4
2013	1.7	20.5	66.2	13.5	2.9
2014	1.7	20.2	67.7	12.3	3.2
2015	1.7	20.4	67.2	11.7	3.5
2016	1.8	20.4	66.7	10.8	3.9
Sources:
Brewers Society Statistical Handbook 1990, page 34.
Statistical Handbook of the British Beer and Pub Association 2003, page 35.
Statistical Handbook of the British Beer and Pub Association 2017, page 28.

UK alcohol consumption 1960 - 1979 (litres)

Continuing on from the last, here's a look at UK beer consumption over another 20 years. Though I haven't just picked the dates because they cover a neat period of two decades.

1960 was the year consumption increased for the first time after a long post-WW II decline. And 1979 is the last year it increased. From 1980 onwards another long period of decline began. One which still hasn't ended.

It's fascinating - though surely a coincidence - that the 1979 peak is almost exactly the same as that of 1914 (125.06 litres), the date after which the long, slow 20th-century decline kicked off.

Beer consumption increased by 43% between 1960 and 1979. Which is pretty impressive. But pales into insignificance compared to other alcoholic drinks. Cider consumption rose by 138%, spirits by 171% and wine by 252%. Clearly beer was in reality faring relatively badly.

I'm particularly intrigued by consumption of all drinks trending upwards during the 1970s, which were quite tough times, economically. With unemployment on the rise, why did the increase in beer consumption not stall? 

UK alcohol consumption 1960 - 1979 (litres)
Year	spirits	wine	beer	cider
1960	0.7	2.3	86.1	1.6
1961	0.8	2.4	89.2	1.7
1962	0.8	2.5	88.6	1.6
1963	0.8	2.8	89	1.6
1964	0.9	3.1	92.6	1.6
1965	0.8	3	91.9	1.7
1966	0.8	3.1	93.7	1.8
1967	0.8	3.4	94.8	2.1
1968	0.9	3.8	96.6	2.1
1969	0.8	3.7	100.4	2.4
1970	0.9	3.7	103	2.6
1971	1	4.4	106.2	2.6
1972	1.1	5	107.6	2.6
1973	1.4	6.3	113.3	2.8
1974	1.5	6.7	116.1	2.8
1975	1.5	6.3	118.5	3.3
1976	1.6	6.5	120.7	3.8
1977	1.4	6.3	119.1	3.6
1978	1.7	7.5	121.3	3.7
1979	1.9	8.1	123.4	3.8
Source:
Brewers Society Statistical Handbook 1990, page 34.

UK alcohol consumption 1937 - 1960 (litres)

I thought I'd treat you to some more of those lovely numbers I recently harvested on alcohol consumption in the UK. Well, I have to do something with the buggers now I've gone to all the trouble of collecting them.

This set shows the blip that was WW II in the general decline in beer drinking between 1900 and 1960. It can be explained by a couple of reasons. First, people had more disposable income, but very little to spend it on. Then there were all the servicemen who flooded into the UK from both the Empire and the USA in the early 1940s. And, of course, the government didn't restrict beer production in the way that they had during the previous war.

I'm always shocked when I see how little cider used to be drunk. Only around the same quantity as wine per head. Cider used to be a far more regional drink, little consumed outside the rural areas where it was produced. Despite its good value due to, by some weird quirk of UK laws, being the only type of alcohol which was untaxed.

Not really a surprise that wine consumption declined during the war. Many suppliers of wine to the UK market were occupied by the Germans and importation of any goods was problematic.

I haven't finished this table at 1960 because it's a nice round date. It's when consumption finally began to increase again. As we'll see in my next post.

UK alcohol consumption 1937 - 1960 (litres)
Year	spirits	wine	beer	cider
1937	0.8	2.1	81.8
1938	0.8	2.1	86.0
1939	0.8	2.0	86.3
1940	0.8	2.0	88.8
1941	0.7	1.8	90.1
1942	0.7	0.9	103.2
1943	0.7	0.5	100.8
1944	0.7	0.4	103.0
1945	0.6	0.4	106.2
1946	0.6	0.6	111.9
1947	0.7	1.0	100.1
1948	0.7	1.3	102.0
1949	0.6	1.0	91.4
1950	0.7	1.1	87.1
1951	0.8	1.3	83.3
1952	0.6	1.3	83.4	1.9
1953	0.7	1.3	82.3	2.0
1954	0.7	1.3	81.6	1.8
1955	0.8	1.5	79.4	1.6
1956	0.8	1.6	81.1	1.8
1957	0.9	1.7	81.2	1.6
1958	0.9	1.8	80.7	1.8
1959	0.9	1.8	77.9	1.8
1960	1.0	2.0	83.9	1.8
Source
Brewers Society Statistical Handbook 1980, page 47.

 

 

UK alcohol consumption 1852 - 1914

When I extracted these figures from a couple of editions of the Brewers' Almanack, I was surprised to notice that I didn't have a spreadsheet for beer consumption. Very strange, that. Especially as I do have a table on one of my statistics web pages.

As with beer production, the general trend in consumption was to increase until 1900, then fall into decline. With the exception of the odd blip, such as WW II, the decline continued until 1960.

To put the numbers into context, in more recent times, beer consumption per capita was - 1970: 103 litres, 1980: 118.3 litres, 1990: 113.9 litres and 2000: 88.4 litres. It should be borne in mind that beer was much stronger pre-WW I, averaging around 5% ABV.  While that in post-WW II it was just 3.7% ABV.  To consume the same amount of alcohol, you’d need to drink a third more beer.

The same rise, peak, then decline across the period is seen in both wines and spirits. All three peaking in 1900. That suggests to me that larger factors were at play and not just beer becoming less popular.

UK Alcohol consumption per capita 1852 - 1914 (litres)
Year ended Dec. 31.	Spirits.
	British	Foreign & Colonial	all	Foreign Wines	Beer	pure alcohol
1852	4.14	0.77	4.96	1.05	99.83	8.73
1862	2.91	0.77	3.73	1.50	103.51	8.18
1872	3.82	1.27	5.09	2.36	144.66	11.6
1882	3.68	1.05	4.73	1.82	125.65	10.22
1885	3.32	1.00	4.32	1.73	124.02	9.83
1890	3.55	1.05	4.64	1.77	136.47	10.77
1895	3.50	0.91	4.50	1.68	134.66	10.57
1897	3.68	0.91	4.59	1.77	138.61
1900	4.32	1.05	5.36	1.91	146.79	11.79
1901	4.05	0.95	5.00	1.64	143.11	11.29
1902	3.68	0.91	4.59	1.59	139.38	10.87
1903	3.77	0.91	4.68	1.68	137.93	10.85
1904	3.64	0.86	4.50	1.41	134.16	10.5
1905	3.50	0.73	4.23	1.23	129.15	10.04
1906	3.41	0.73	4.14	1.23	126.84	9.8
1907	3.36	0.77	4.14	1.27	126.43	9.81
1908	3.36	0.73	4.09	1.23	125.61	9.74
1909	3.27	0.68	3.96	1.14	120.34	9.34
1910	2.18	0.45	2.64	1.14	122.15	8.43
1911	2.55	0.55	3.09	1.23	118.70	8.76
1912	2.55	0.55	3.09	1.09	124.34	9.07
1913	2.50	0.55	3.05	1.09	122.20	8.94
1914	2.64	0.59	3.23	1.14	125.06	9.19
Sources:
Brewers' Almanack 1912, page 156.
Brewers' Almanack 1922, pages 116 and 129.