PDA

View Full Version : Shut up about Barclay Perkins - Brewing in WW II (part seven)



Blog Tracker
29-10-2014, 07:14
Visit the Shut up about Barclay Perkins site (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2014/10/brewing-in-ww-ii-part-seven.html)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g4NfRWjj2B0/VEC-Yu4-1YI/AAAAAAAAVgw/wO70De1Qwv4/s1600/Steward_%26_Patteson_Stingo.jpg (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g4NfRWjj2B0/VEC-Yu4-1YI/AAAAAAAAVgw/wO70De1Qwv4/s1600/Steward_%26_Patteson_Stingo.jpg)We're back in the middle of a WW II hop field.

And in the middle of the war. I wonder how thins are going?


"The 1942 crop was of uniform good quality and was considered to be the best for 10 years. The quantity picked, however, was still short of brewers' requirements, and they were only able to obtain 80 per cent, of what they had asked for. A new disease of the hop plant, which had made its appearance a few years previously in the Kent hop gardens, had become virulent that year. It was the virus disease, Verticillium Wilt, which attacked the plant, causing it to wither away, and was having an adverse influence on the yield in some gardens. Although investigations were then extensively being carried out at East Mailing into its cause, the only method of combating it was by grubbing. The hop crop in 1943 was of fair average quality, although it tailed off towards the end of the picking. The yield was higher than in the previous two years, although it was barely sufficient to supply the brewers' requirements. The yield: of the 1944 crop was again short, and brewers had to be content with a 20 per cent, reduction in their allocations, while the quality was rather below the average."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing Volume 52, Issue 3, May-June, 1946, page 123.
A new hop disease is the last thing anyone needed. Especially if the only cure was grubbing up the bines.


Why don't we take a look at hop usage during the war?



Hop usage in WW II


year
hops
prep-arations of hops
hop substitutes
bulk barrels
qtrs. malt
lbs hops per qtr
lbs hops per barrel


1938
277,846
145
29
24,339,360
4,307,776
7.22
1.28


1939
285,715
113
13
25,691,217
4,536,400
7.05
1.25


1940
265,512
132
108
24,925,704
4,176,167
7.12
1.19


1941
251,354
186
166
28,170,582
4,447,843
6.33
1.00


1942
223,007
246
71
29,584,656
4,490,029
5.56
0.84


1943
231,589
250
96
29,811,321
4,555,652
5.69
0.87


1944
243,900
277
137
31,380,684
4,731,148
5.77
0.87


1945
244,822
714
139
31,990,334
4,896,364
5.60
0.86


1946
226,197
1,414
168
31,066,950
4,644,176
5.46
0.82


1947
217,759
1,423
191
30,103,180
4,187,780
5.82
0.81


Source:


Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.



Hopping rates did indeed fall. By 1945, the average amount of hops per barrel was 33% lower than in the last full year of peace, 1938. In terms of hops per quarter of malt, it was 22.5% lower. The latter figure is important as it takes beer gravity out of the equation.


"Before the war most brewers endeavoured to hold about 6 months' stock of hops above their year's requirements, but the disaster of 1940 practically wiped this out, and the principal difficulty ever since has been to maintain a sufficiently high hop rate with the reduced quantity of hops available, especially in those years when the quantity and quality was low. The agreed average price for the hops of the 1944 crop was £20 per cwt, a little more than double the price at the beginning of the war."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing Volume 52, Issue 3, May-June, 1946, page 123.
Here are the production and prices of hops during the war:



Hop production, imports and exports 1938 - 1947


Year ended 31st Dec.
Acreage
Estimated Produce
Yield per acre
Average Price of English Hops per Season, Sept. to Dec.
Imports: Less Re-Exports
Exports: British Hops
Consumption Years ended 30th Sept. following
shortfall / surplus




Cwts.
Cwts.
£ s. d.
Cwts.
Cwts.
Cwts.
Cwts.


1938
18,460
257,000
13.9
9 0 0
45,287
12,580
286,716
2,991


1939
18,812
288,000
15.3
9 10 0
7,840
16,050
265,512
14,278


1940
18,592
270,500
14.5
12 0 0
14,675
26,830
251,354
6,991


1941
18,158
262,800
14.5
15 0 0
31
17,209
223,007
22,615


1942
18,420
261,900
14.2
17 10 0
2,963
30,673
231,689
2,501


1943
19,131
285,200
14.9
18 0 0
198
24,941
243,900
16,557


1944
19,603
253,900
13
20 0 0
0
26,525
244,822
-17,447


1945
19,957
282,900
14.1
21 0 0
574
32,337
226,197
24,940


1946
21,163
257,451
13.4
22 10 0
29,243
35,056
217,759
33,879


1947
22,142
289,908
13.2
23 10 0
7,716
31,661
231,470
34,493


Source:


Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 63.



The price was indeed £20 per cwt. in 1944. You can see that the price of hops, in contrast to that of malt, rose every year of the war and continued to rise after its end. And you can see from the shortfall/surplus figure (production plus imports minus exports and usage) that there was no room to build stocks, with only tiny surplus or even, as in 1944, a deficit. It did indeed look serious in 1944. The shortfall wiped out the surplus of the previous two years.

Brewers must have been the only people disappointed by the USA's entry into the war:


"Naturally attempts were made to remedy the very serious position in 1941, but the entry of America into the war cut short any prospect of importing from that source, and Continental hops were out of the question. Lupulin, which was little more than kiln dust, was offered from America, but the quantity which reached this country was small, later quite a useful hop concentrate was imported from the United States, but the quantity available was limited. It had a preservative value equal to from five to seven times that of hops and was a slight help in improving the situation. It has a strong American flavour, however, and the proportion that could be used had in consequence to be limited."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing Volume 52, Issue 3, May-June, 1946, page 123.
Because it ended hopes of getting American hops. You can see from the first table that the quantity of preparations of hops - which is where I think Lupulin belongs - was indeed tiny.

Picking hops wea still causing problems, too:


"The difficulties the growers had experienced in getting their whole crop picked and the delay that often occurred before it could all be obtained before it was over ripe and turned brown, again brought the question of picking machines into prominence. Some of the growers have been experimenting with these machines and necessary improvements have been made so that with the prospective increased costs of labour in the future it is likely that picking machines will be used in larger numbers."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing Volume 52, Issue 3, May-June, 1946, page 123.There was also something I skipped about the introduction of combine harvesters during the war because of labour shortages. Their use was one reason much of the wartime crops were damaged after harvesting. It seems the war gave the mechanisatoin of agriculture a big push.

It seems supply problems continued after thge war:


"The present position with regard to the supply of hops at the end of 6 years is causing considerable anxiety as stocks held at the outbreak of war disappeared after the destruction of so large a proportion of the 1940 crop, and although hop rates have been reduced to the lowest possible limit, not sufficient hops are now being grown to meet brewers' requirements, and the amount available this year represents a shortage of from 6 to 8 weeks in a full year, which will become more serious next year. Although the Ministry of Agriculture has given permission to plant up a further 2,500 acres of hops it has been impossible to convince the Hops Marketing Board of the seriousness of the position and of the certainty that a much larger quantity than is at present being grown would be readily absorbed, even should there be a drop in the output of beer in the near future. Unless something can be done to obtain alternative supplies, therefore, the serious prospect of restricting the output of beer may become a reality."
Journal of the Institute of Brewing Volume 52, Issue 3, May-June, 1946, page 123.
If you look at the table above you can see that it isn't true that insufficient hops were being grown to meet demand. Even after exporting 30,000 cwt there was still a surplus. Not a huge one, but it was there. Beer output did indeed fall after war's end. It didn't start increasing until 1959 and didn't get back to the 1945 level until the end of the 1960's*.

Next time we'll be looking at brewing itself.




* 1971 Brewers'Almanack, page 54

More... (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2014/10/brewing-in-ww-ii-part-seven.html)