Excise duty rates in the EU and UK

Some more numbers I've plucked from the BBPA Statistical Handbook 2025. This time comparing the tax rates amongst European countries.

I've sorted the table in ascending order of beer tax rates. It makes for interesting reading. No surprise that the UK and Ireland are at the top end. With only Finland having higher tax.

I already knew that beer tax was low in Germany. But not that low. Only in one country in the table is it lower: Bulgaria. And even then only marginally so. I'm gobsmacked that the tax is higher in Czechia. Who would have guessed that?

Here in the Netherlands, while the tax is a third of that in the UK, it's still quite high compared to most EU countries. And four times higher than in Germany. It's no wonder beer is so much cheaper in German supermarkets than here.

I was surprised at how many EU countries have zero tax on wine. Just over half - 14 of 27. Pretty much all of them being countries which produce large quantities of wine. With the one exception of Luxembourg. 

Excise duty rates in the EU and UK
Country	Beer pence per pint at 5% abv	Wine pence per 75cl bottle at 12% abv	Spirits £ per 70cl bottle at 40% abv	VAT
Bulgaria	4.4	0	1.3	20
Germany	4.5	0	3.1	19
Luxembourg	4.5	0	2.6	17
Spain	4.7	0	2.2	21
Romania	6.1	1.3	2.5	19
Czechia	7.2	0	3.6	21
Slovakia	8.5	0	3.5	23
Malta	10.9	12.9	3.2	18
Hungary	11.2	0	3.5	27
Austria	11.4	0	2.8	20
Belgium	11.4	47	7	21
Portugal	11.5	0	3.8	23
Croatia	12.6	0	1.9	25
Cyprus	14.3	0	2.2	19
Poland	14.5	32.5	4.4	23
Denmark	15.5	94.8	4.7	25
Italy	17.1	0	2.4	22
France	19.3	2.6	4.5	20
Netherlands	19.3	60.1	4.3	21
Latvia	23.3	84.2	4.6	21
Lithuania	26.1	159.5	6.5	21
Greece	28.5	0	5.7	24
Slovenia	30.8	0	3.3	22
Estonia	33.3	102.4	4.9	22
Sweden	47.9	164.2	10.9	25
UK (draught beer)	53.3	265.9	9.2	20
Ireland	53.6	266.8	10	23
UK (packaged beer)	61.9
Finland	86.1	286.4	13	25.5
Source:
BBPA Statistical Handbook 2025, page 58.

 

Systems of taxation

How beer is taxed can have a big impact on what gets made.

A couple of examples.

In the system introduced in the UK in 1880 (and in effect for moe than a century) tax was based on the OG of the wort before fermentation. This gave brewers a huge incentivbe to throw in all sorts of crap, including beer returned from pubs. As this stuff was tax-free. When half of the retail price of a pint was duty, 5% per barrel tax-free could add up to a lot of money.

The US flat-rate tax system has also distorted the market. However strong your beer, you pay the same tax. In ost countries, the tax is in some sort of proportion to the amount of alcohol in a beer. A flat-rate tax is an incentive to brew stronger beer. As the production costs of a 5% and a 9% beer aren't very different. But drinkers won't be happy paying the same price for the weaker beer.

In my chat with Chris Flaskamp, I discovered Chile has another way to tax beer. One not based on alcohol content. It's at 21:47.

 

For those who can't be arsed to look at the video, the Chilean system is simply based on the price. As craft beer is more expensive, its brewers pay more tax than the big boys. Not very faif.

Summary of UK brewing legislation (part two)

Today it's the rest o my cut-out-and-keep guide to 19th-ccentury UK brewing legislation. Which isn't quite so sugar-heavy this time.

1880, with the Free Mash Tun Act, was a huge dividing line in brewing legislation. Many of the old rules - designed to stop brewers dodging tax by using any fermentable material other than malt - ell by the wayside.

31st July 1865 - 30th April 1874
Brewers prohibited from using a mixture of glucose and treacle.

30th April 1874
The definition of sugar extended to mean any description of sugar, including any saccharine substance or syrup manufactured from any material from which sugar can be manufactured. The use of sugar to make beer colouring also allowed.

14th August 1855 - 30th September 1880
Storage of unmalted grain in a brewery prohibited except for: grain in a malt house; oats or beans for horse food kept in a specific place. Malt only to be crushed by metal rollers with smooth surfaces which were not fluted.

11th October 1862 - 30th September 1880
Brewers of spruce or black beer exempted from new rates of license duty on brewers provided that they used no hops or yeast in making them.

16th September 1862
Duties on hops repealed. Prohibition on hop substitutes removed, also the restrictions on importing extracts, essences and other preparations of hops. This was only extended to Ireland on 25th July 1864.

1st October 1880
"Free mash tun " Act. Duty imposed at 6s 3d per standard barrel of 1057º. All restriction on ingredients removed except those on drugs and harmful substances.

16th May 1888
The use of "saccharin" (a product of coal tar) prohibited.

16th April 1889
A standard barrel changed to 1055º.

17th April 1894
Duty per standard barrel raised to 6s 9d.

1st October 1896
Rice, flaked maize and other similar products, which had been classified as malt or corn with regard to their wort-producing powers reclassified as "sugar".
Source: "Report and minutes of evidence Departmental Committee on Beer Materials, 1899, page 382. 

Notice how strict the rules were on unmalted grains. And the weird rules about mill rollers. I've absolutely no idea why fluted rollers weren't allowed. Maybe that's what you'd use for unmalted grains.

Summary of UK brewing legislation (part one)

Something a bit different today. Really a reference guide, rather than anything else. For any budding beer historian who doesn't feel like digging through all the parliamentary statutes.

You'll notice that quite a lot o it relates to sugar in brewing. Which was a tricky subject for the government. Big fluctuations in the duty on sugar used in brewing must discouraged brewers from using it.

Whitbread, for example, briefly flirted with sugar when it was first allowed in 1847. But soon dropped it again and didn't readopt it until 1865. Barclay Perkins, other than in the occasional cheap beer, didn't use sugar before the 1880 Free Mash Tun Act.

1st May 1802 - 20th June 1811
No materials other than malt, hops and water allowed.

26th June 1811 - 5th July 1817
Porter brewers were allowed to use a solution of burnt brown sugar to colour Porter only.

6th July 1817
The burnt colouring solution was forbidden and only malt, hops and water were allowed. Brewers, retailers and dealers of beer were not allowed to possess sugar nor certain specified drugs and adulterants.

11th October 1827
The rules from 6th July 1817 also applied to Ireland.

16th July 1830
Beer duties abolished. Brewers prohibited from having raw or unmalted grain on their premises.

18th June 1842
The use of roasted or black malt in brewing first recognised in law.  Strict rules on the manufacture, sale and storage of black malt were introduced. There was further legislation on this topic in 1856 and 1857. All these were repealed in 1880. 

23rd February 1847
The use of sugar (but not molasses or other types of sugar on which the full duties had not been paid) allowed in the brewing of beer and in the preparation of colouring material for beer.

6th July 1851
A duty of 1s 4d per cwt. introduced on sugar used in brewing.

10th July 1854
Duty on sugar used in brewing raised to 6s 6d per cwt.

1855
Duty on sugar used in brewing reduced to 3s 9d per cwt.

5th July 1856 - 15th April 1864
Collection of duty on sugar used in brewing held in abeyance.

16th April 1864
A duty of 3s 4d per cwt. imposed on sugar used in brewing.

30th April 1867
Duty on sugar used in brewing raised to 3s 6d per cwt.

12th April 1870
Duty on sugar used in brewing raised to 7s 6d per cwt.

8th May 1873
Duty on sugar used in brewing raised to 9s 6d per cwt.

30th April 1874
Duty on sugar used in brewing raised to 11s 6d per cwt.

30th September 1880
Duty on sugar used in brewing repealed.
Source: "Report and minutes of evidence Departmental Committee on Beer Materials, 1899, page 382.

In 1830, when the taxation on beer was purely on malt and hops, restrictions came in on having unmalted grains in a brewery. As their use would be dodging tax.

War, tax and technology

Porter and Stout were transformed in these decades. And the catalysts for this change were taxation and technology. The former necessitating change and the latter enabling it.

For much of the time the UK was at war. Mostly with France, though they were happy fight anyone else who fancied a scrap. Wars cost money and one of the easiest sources of it was taxing alcohol.

There were hikes in the malt tax in 1780, 1791, 1802 and 1806. It took around two bushels of malt to brew a barrel of Porter, which after 1806 would have incurred a tax of 9s 11.5d. Or just a half penny short of the other tax of ten shillings a barrel of strong beer. Add in 3d or so for the hop tax and you have a total of a bit over twenty shillings. Not far short of half the wholesale price.

For Stouts, which required more bushels of malt, that would be providing more than 50% total tax. Making reduced the quantity of malt needed an obvious way to save money. Not just fewer materials to pay for, also less tax.

All this was happening just as the hydrometer was coming into use. Providing brewers with lots of information about the yield from different types of malt. They soon realised replacing some of the brown malt with pale would reduce the quantity of malt required to brew a beer.

Another technological development, the thermometer, gave brewers unprecedented control over the mashing process. Combined with the hydrometer, it also enabled honing of the procedure for maximum efficiency.

The third new piece of technology, the attemperator, allowed brewing all year round, without the need for a summer break. Allowing brewers to make much better use of their equipment and not having it lie idle for part of the year.

Taxes on and price of beer 1779 - 1816
Year	Tax/bush.malt	tax/lb. Hops	tax/brl strong	tax/brl small	tax/brl table	Price barrel porter	Price quart porter
1779	9.25d	1d + 5%	8s	1s 4d	2s	30s	3.5d
1780	1s 4.25d	1d + 10%	8s	1s 4d	2s	30s	3.5d
1782	1s 4.25d	1d + 10%	8s	1s 4d	3s
1786	1s 4.25d	1.6d	8s	1s 4d	3s	30s	3.5d
1791	1s 7.25d	1.6d	8s	1s 4d	3s	30s	3.5d
1801	1s 4.25d	2.5d	8s	1s 4d		40s	4.5d
1802	2s. 5d	2.5d	10s		2s	35s	4d
1806	4s 5.75d	2d	10s		2s	45s	5d
1816	2s. 5d	2d	10s		2s	40s	4.5d
Sources:
The Brewing Industry in England 1700-1830 by Peter Mathias page 546.
A History of English Ale and Beer by H.A. Monckton, pages 203 and 204.

Variety or Uniformity?

Beer wasn't just in short supply in WW II. It was also short on variety.

The main reason for the reduction in choice was beer zoning, the system by which brewers had their distant pubs supplied by other breweries. Which is some areas had the effect of introducing a local monopoly.

"Variety or Uniformity
Apart from questions of war damage, the zoning arrangements, following upon the large degree of voluntary exchange of houses previously undertaken by breweries in the interest of transport economy, have resulted in a great many people finding themselves unable to obtain their accustomed brew. Doubtless most breweries will resume the supply of their own licensed premises and their other customers with their own beers as soon as may be. Although the considerations of petrol and tyre shortage make it imperative that long journeys should be avoided wherever possible in war time, it is not in normal circumstances an uneconomic proposition for a brewery to supply its beer over a wide area, and there is every reason to suppose that breweries will wish to do so as soon as it is practicable. From the point of view of the public it is right that there should be this resumption of free choice. In ordinary circumstances the public expects, and has the right to expect, to be able to choose between several alternatives, and the public is quick to detect, or imagine, it detects, subtle differences between the products of different breweries."
The Brewing Trade Review, September 1943, page 268.

Of course, after the war the biggest threat to diversity and choice was the brewers themselves. The mergers and takeovers of the 1950s and 1960s created many local monopolies of near monopolies. Like Watney in Norwich, for example. The tied house system made reduction in choice pretty inevitable.

Shortage of materials had led brewers to prune the range of beers they brewed, eliminating stronger or less popular beers.

"It would be desirable, too, that the range of beers from a given brewery should be fully resumed when the arbitrary restrictions made necessary at present by the shortage of materials are removed. How far this will be possible must depend a great deal upon the policy of the Government after the war in the matter of the beer duty. In 1939 the average beer paid a duty of a trifle over 2d. per pint; the average! beer of to-day—an appreciably lighter product—pays more than 7d. per pint. It is questionable how far, while the present heavy beer duty is in force, the public could afford to return to the qualities of beer which it consumed before the war. Immediately after the last war the duty was increased, not reduced; In 1914 it stood at 7s. 9d. per standard1 barrel; when the war ended it stood at 50s., which was increased in 1919 to 70s. and in 1920 to 100s. Not until 1923 was there a reduction of 20s. on the bulk barrel. When it is remembered that the present duty on a standard barrel is 281s. 10.5d., however, one realises that there may be very little in common between the problem of the beer duty after the last war and that which will have to be faced when this war ends. One is led by the frequent references to the subject to believe that the prosperity of the people generally will be tackled more successfully in the days to come than it was 25 years ago, and this may well go far towards counterbalancing a beer duty disproportionately high in comparison with the general level of the cost of living, whether that comparison is with 1939 or 1914."
The Brewing Trade Review, September 1943, page 268.

The author was pretty astute to point out that beer duty continued to rise after the end of WW I. Because something similar happened after WW II.

UK tax on beer 1943 - 1949
Year	Tax/Std. Brl	tax pint	Total Tax £
1943	281s 10.5d	5.96d	209,584,343
1944	286s 5.5d	7.20d	263,170,703
1945	286s 5.5d	7.42d	278,876,870
1946	286s 5.5d	7.54d	295,305,369
1947	286s 5.5d	7.13d	250,350,829
1948	325s 5d	7.24d	264,112,043
1949	364s 4.5d	9.10d	294,678,035
Source:
1955 Brewers' Almanack, pages 50 & 80.

Though the rate of tax was remarkably stable between 1944 and 1947.

Just as with the WW I, there was never a return to pre-war strengths. And brewers never reinstated all their beers.

For example, Shepherd Neame brewed 8 beers pre-war, but only six after it, dropping a strong Pale Ale and one of their Stouts. It was even more extreme at Fullers, where half of their eight pre-war beers disappeared for good.

How to tackle tax increases

I always wondered a couple of things about Australian beer when I lived there. Why was it stronger than beer in the UK and why did they use such weird glass sizes.

This aricle in the excellent Time Gents blog explains it.

It's all to do with price inelasticity and tax increases. And it forms an interesting contrast with what occurred in the UK.

In the 20th century, brewers struggled with small tax increases. Mostly beacuse of the limitations of the currency. The cheapest beer only cost 2d per pint and the smallest coin was a farthing (a quarter penny).  What did you do if a tax increase raised the price by 12.5% (as happened in 1901)? If you raised the price of Mild from 2d to 2.25d, what price would you sell a half pint for?

The brewers found a simple solution: they just dropped the OG enough so the beer could still retail for the same price. Which also caused less unrest amongst drinkers, as the price of their pint remained the same. Quite inportant pre-WW I, when the price of beer had been constant for 40 or 50 years. And, initially, drinkers probably wouldn't notice the difference in strength.

Australian brewing struggled with the same challenges when the tax on beer was increased. Drinkers didn't want to pay more for their beer, and there were limits on the currency.

But a different approach was taken. Mostly because it was the publicans, rather than the brewers, who were calling the shots. Rather than increase the price, they reduced the glass size. As only Imperial Pints and half pints were controlled measures, new glasses, such as the schooner, were introduced.

When introduced in 1932, a New South Wales schooner was 18 fluid ounces, just a little smaller than an Imperial pint. By 1945 it was down to just 13 fluid ounces.

So while UK drinkers got the same quantity of weaker beer, Australians got less beer, but at the same price.

2d per pint extra for high gravity beer

One of the unique features of tax rises in the first half of the 20th century is that they usually amounted to an increase in 1d per pint, retail.

At least that's what was usually claimed. But, as the tax was related to the gravity of the beer, the situation was, in reality, more complicated. The 1d was based on average strength beer. Obviously the increase would be greater for a beer of greater strength.

"TWOPENCE A PINT EXTRA ON HIGHER GRAVITY
As a result of the new Budget tax, higher gravity beers will be increased 2d. a pint, and not 1d. per pint as had been generally understood.

At a meeting of Derby and District Bottlers' Association yesterday the chairman said that it was very necessary to make it clear to the public that the new tax was on a gravity basis and that gravity beers are affected to a much greater degree than 1d. a pint.

The meeting fixed prices as under for Guinness Extra Stout, Bass Pale Ale, Worthington I.P.A., and Younger's No. 3 Scotch Ale delivered for home consumption as from Monday next: Bass, Worthington and Younger's, 12s. 6d. per doz. pints, 6s. 6d. per doz. half pints, 5s. per doz. nips. Guinness E.S., 11s. 4d., 6s. 2d., and 4s. 10d. respectively.

Gravity of beer depends on the amount of alcohol, hops, malt, and barley contained. A higher gravity beer is essentially a brewed beer with a higher percentage of these ingredients than the cheaper and chemically treated kind. In most cases brewers use "X's" to indicate the strength of their ales and stouts, and those that will go up by only 1d. pint are, generally speaking, those denoted by one X." "
Derby Daily Telegraph - Saturday 27 April 1940, page 3.

I understand the basic principle. But were the beers mentioned really so strong that the tax increase was 2d per pint? Why don't we take a look?

The increase in April 1940 was from 104 shillings per standard barrel to 135 shillings. A standard barrel being 36 Imperial gallons at 1055º. Luckily, I know the gravity of all four beers mentioned. They were all well above average strength, but nothing like double as strong.

Looking at the table below, you'll see that the increase in tax for an average strength beer was about 1d per pint. For the four higher-gravity beers, it's more like 1.25d.

Effect of April 1940 tax increase
Beer	Tax in shillings	OG	tax per barrel (shillings)	tax per pint (d.)
Average OG beer	104	1041	77.53	3.23
Average OG beer	135	1041	100.64	4.19
Bass Pale Ale	104	1056	105.89	4.41
Bass Pale Ale	135	1056	137.45	5.73
Guinness Extra Stout	104	1054	102.11	4.25
Guinness Extra Stout	135	1054	132.55	5.52
Worthington IPA	104	1055	104.00	4.33
Worthington IPA	135	1055	135.00	5.63
Younger's No. 3	104	1052	98.33	4.10
Younger's No. 3	135	1052	127.64	5.32
Sources:
1955 Brewers' Almanack, pages 50 & 80.
Truman Gravity Book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number B/THB/C/252.
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
William Younger brewing record held at the Scottish Brewing Archive, document number WY/6/1/2/76.

Looks like the bottlers were taking the piss.

Given that the four beers were of very similar gravities, I wonder why Guinness Extra Stout was cheaper? What do the beers have in common? They were all nationally available.

War with the French

Porter wasn’t a static thing, it continued to develop during the 1700s. Moving away from its origins as a 100% brown malt beer.

Towards the end of the 18th century, almost constant war with the French left the British government in need of cash. And they turned to their favourite source of revenue: alcohol. At the time, beer was taxed in three ways: on the malt, on the hops and on the finished beer itself.

A combination of increased taxation on malt to pay for the wars with France and the introduction of new technology, in the form of the hydrometer, transformed Porter grists. Brewers realised that, though cheaper, the poorer yield from brown malt actually made it more expensive to use than pale malt. The base malt changed from brown to pale, with brown retained just for flavour and colour.

It’s likely that this is when brown malt stopped being diastatic. With a majority of the malt pale, there was no need for the brown malt to retain any diastatic power. At a time when it was also required to provide more colour and flavour than previously.

At this point London brewers still used ingredients from the immediate area: malt from Hertfordshire or Sussex and hops from Kent. This would change radically in just a couple of decades as the UK’s population and thirst for beer outstripped the productive capacity of agriculture.

The increased taxation had a couple of effects on Porter. The first was the move away from a 100% brown malt beer to one brewed from a base of pale malt. But it retained a high percentage of brown malt.

The second change was a reduction in OG. Dropping from 1075º in the 1770s to around 1055º by the first years of the 19th century. This was as a direct result of increased taxation, which encouraged brewers to lower strength to cut costs.

Taxes on beer 1779 - 1815
Year	Tax/bush.malt	tax/lb. Hops	tax/brl strong	tax/brl small	tax/brl table	Price quart porter
1779	9.25d	1d + 5%	8s	1s 4d	2s	3.5d
1780	1s 4.25d	1d + 10%	8s	1s 4d	2s	3.5d
1783	1s 4.25d	1d + 15%	8s	1s 4d	3s	3.5d
1786	1s 4.25d	1.6d	8s	1s 4d	3s	3.5d
1791	1s 7.25d	1.6d	8s	1s 4d	3s	3.5d
1801	1s 4.25d	2.5d	8s	1s 4d	3s	4.5d
1802	2s. 5d	2.5d	10s		2s	4d
1804	4s 5.75d	2.5d	10s		2s	6d
1815	2s. 5d	2d	10s		2s
Sources:
The Brewing Industry in England 1700-1830 Peter Mathias, p.369
A History of English Ale and Beer, H.A. Monckton, p.204

Porter before black malt
Year	Brewer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl	pale malt	brown malt	amber malt
1804	Barclay Perkins	1055.4	1015.5	5.28	72.02%	6.83	2.00	42.59%	47.43%	9.98%
1807	Whitbread	1052.6	1015.5	4.91	70.53%	13.06	3.60	66.32%	16.84%	16.84%
Sources:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/002.
Barclay Perkins brewing record held at the London Metropolitan archives, document number ACC/2305/1/525.

You'll find more information that you'll ever need to know about Porter in my excellent book on the subject:

Draught beer prices 1939 - 1948

As with every conflict since the English Civil War in the 17th century, WW II saw a big increase in the tax on beer. It’s the traditional war for British governments to pay for warfare.

WW I must have been a big shock for beer drinkers. Beer prices, which had been constant for four or five decades, increased dramatically. A pint of Mild, which had been 2d in 1914 was 6d in 1920. And for a beer of much lower gravity.

In 1939, gravities and prices were pretty much as they had been in 1921. The war soon changed that, with the first tax increase hitting brewers just a few months in. But it wasn’t quite the shock it had been during WW I. Further tax increases followed, even past the end of the war.

As in WW I, the effect of the war was an approximate trebling of draught beer prices. Though, once again, a pint was considerably weaker in 1948 than in 1939.


If you’re wondering why Best Bitter became cheaper in the later war years, it’s because there was a big reduction in gravity. Larger than that Burton and Stout endured. Though I had trouble finding numbers because some of the breweries I was using a yardstick, for example, Barclay Perkins, stopped brewing Best Bitter early on in the war.

Still, I’ve lived through just a bad beer price inflation. In the mid-1970s beer increased in price several times a year when inflation was running at 25-30% annually.

Draught beer prices per pint (d) 1939 - 1948
Month	Year	Ale	Mild	Best Mild	Ordinary Bitter	Best Bitter	Burton	Stout
Sept	1939	4	5	6	7	8	8	8
April	1940	5	6	7	8	9	9	9
April	1941	7	8	9	10	12	12	12
April	1942	9	10	11	12	15	15	15
April	1943	10	11	12	13	17	17	17
April	1944		11		13	15	17	17
April	1945		11		13	15	17	17
April	1946	11	12		13	16	17	17
April	1947	11	12		13	16	17	17
April	1948	12	13		14	19	19	19
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/001.
Barclay Perkins Circular Letters held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number ACC/2305/01/521/1.

Booze revenue 1937 - 1952

More numbers. What fun.

It’s no surprise that the money raised from alcohol increased during the war. That’s the way UK governments always financed wars. Alcohol is an easy choice since demand is fairly elastic. The table below shows just how much of that came from beer. And how the percentage raised from beer rose from 60% in 1937 to 80% in 1945 and 1946.

Between 1939 and 1947, the revenue from spirits only just more than doubled. While that from beer quadrupled.

You might have expected the income from imported beer to have totally evaporated at the height of the war. There’s a simple reason it didn’t: Guinness. Which continued to export – with some small interruptions you’ll read about later – large quantities of beer to the UK.

There’s an impressive surge in imported wine revenue after 1947. Way higher than the pre-war level.

Please ponder the numbers. As I can't be arsed to explain everything. Stare long enough and they'll make some sort of sense. Or you'll fall into a zombie-like state. That's me most evenings. Get home, staring then zombieing.

UK Excise and customs revenue from alcoholic drink (£ millions)
	Beer			Wine			Spirits
Year	UK	Imports	total	UK	Imports	total	UK	Imports	total	Duty Receipts in Total
1937	57.3	5.4	62.7	0.5	5.1	5.6	31.4	4.8	36.2	104.5
1938	61.2	4.5	65.7	0.5	5.0	5.5	31.1	4.8	35.9	107.1
1939	62.4	3.2	65.6	0.5	4.8	5.3	30.9	4.7	35.6	106.5
1940	75.2	3.6	78.8	0.9	5.7	6.6	34.5	6.2	40.7	126.1
1941	133.5	5.6	139.1	1.6	7.8	9.4	33.9	11.6	45.5	194.0
1942	157.3	7.3	164.6	1.1	3.8	4.9	31.0	15.7	46.7	216.2
1943	209.6	8.0	217.6	1.7	2.4	4.1	49.4	18.2	67.6	289.3
1944	263.2	6.4	269.6	2.1	2.3	4.4	59.6	17.2	76.8	350.8
1945	278.9	8.9	287.8	2.0	2.5	4.5	50.1	13.5	63.6	355.9
1946	295.3	10.8	306.1	2.2	5.0	7.2	51.2	16.9	68.1	381.4
1947	250.4	9.4	259.8	2.2	10.8	13.0	51.6	24.9	76.5	349.3
1948	264.1	9.9	274.0	3.4	15.6	19.0	40.7	42.7	83.4	376.4
1949	294.7	12.6	307.3	3.8	15.7	19.5	46.7	44.1	90.8	417.6
1950	263.1	13.7	276.8	2.8	16.1	18.9	58.7	39.6	98.3	394.0
1951	249.1	13.0	262.1	3.2	18.1	21.3	75.8	38.7	114.5	397.9
1952	248.2	12.7	260.9	3.3	17.5	20.8	67.1	29.9	97.0	378.7
Source:
"Drink in Great Britain 1900-1979" by GP Williams and GT Brake, 1980, Edsdall London, page 380.