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31-05-2015, 08:59
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I’ve an idea. Let’s look at barley for a while rather than hops. Since my visit to John Innes in January, I’ve become much more interested in barley varieties.

Here’s an overview of the types of malting barley grown around the world:


“As far as barley suitable for malting is concerned, it can be stated that all the varieties grown in the British Isles are two-rowed; two-rowed barleys are also grown in Australia, Ouchak and Chile, while six-rowed varieties are grown in California, Australia, Morocco, Smyrna and Chile, as well as in some other countries. Prior to the 1939 war considerable quantities of foreign six-rowed barleys were used by British brewers, mainly from California and Chile, as well as some Chilean two-rowed. Due to the sunnier and more equable climates of these countries as compared with the British climate these barleys were more uniform in quality and this was of distinct advantage to the maltster. Further, the coarser husk of the six-rowed varieties tended to give a better filtration in the mash tun and to prevent those filtration troubles caused by the too-close packing of the undissolved parts of the malt (known to the brewer as grains'), which form the medium through which the solution containing the extractable materials is filtered off. In fact most brewers used from 30% upwards of Californian or other similar foreign malt and many brewers considered that they could not brew satisfactorily without them. However, experience dining and since the war has shown that present-day beers can be satisfactorily brewed from all British malt.”
"Brewing Theory and Practice" by E. J. Jeffery, 1956, page 129.
British brewers had this thing about Californian malt and got most upset when it was unobtainable during the two world wars. But the last one seems to have weaned them off it.

He’s right in saying loads of six-row barley was imported before WW II. That’s very clear from brewing records. Britain at the time produced way too little barley for its own needs. But that all changed during WW II, when there was a massive increase in barley production. As this table shows:



UK barley production and imports 1938 - 1960


Year ended Dec. 31.
Acreage.
Estimated Product Quarters (400 lbs.).
Average Price per Quarter.
Barley. Imports.
% homegrown


1938
988,000
18,080,000
10 2
19,876,000
47.63%


1939
1,013,000
17,840,000
8 10
13,740,000
56.49%


1940
1,339,000
22,080,000
18 2
9,146,000
70.71%


1941
1,475,000
22,880,000
24 0
1,277,000
94.71%


1942
1,528,000
28,920,000
45 8
0
100.00%


1943
1,786,000
32,900,000
31 5
0
100.00%


1944
1,973,000
35,040,000
26 5
0
100.00%


1945
2,215,000
42,160,000
24 5
2,037,000
95.39%


1946
2,211,000
39,260,000
24 3
2,195,000
94.71%


1947
2,060,000
32,380,000
24 0
2,257,000
93.48%


1948
2,082,000
40,540,000
26 10
15,618,000
72.19%


1949
2,060,000
42,580,000
25 10
9,223,000
82.20%


1950
1,778,000
34,220,000
27 11
15,289,000
69.12%


1951
1,908,000
38,780,000
38 10
24,270,000
61.51%


1952
2,281,000
46,680,000
32 7
22,641,000
67.34%


1953
2,226,000
50,420,000
30 1
28,702,000
63.72%


1954
2,063,000
44,880,000
25 9
18,602,000
70.70%


1955
2,295,000
58,720,000
26 0
18,554,000
75.99%


1956
2,323,000
56,000,000
25 8
16,215,000
77.55%


1957
2,622,000
59,140,000
23 2
20,168,000
74.57%


1958
2,755,000
63,400,000
22 11
26,504,000
70.52%


1959
3,057,000
80,320,000
22 7
19,939,000
80.11%


1960
3,372,000
84,820,000
21 3
14,083,000
85.76%


Source:


1971 Brewers' Almanack, page 61.




This can’t have all been barley for brewing. Slightly less beer was brewed in 1954 than 1938, while the total amount of barley both home grown and imported had grown significantly, from just under 38 million quarters to 63.5 million.

It’s clear from this next table that only a small percentage of barley was used in brewing:



Malt use in brewing 1938 - 1959


Year
cwt. Malt
qtrs. malt
bulk barrels


1938
9,378,888
3,126,296
24,339,360


1939
9,884,803
3,294,934
25,691,217


1940
9,857,838
3,285,946
24,925,704


1941
10,988,413
3,662,804
28,170,582


1942
10,918,102
3,639,367
29,584,656


1943
10,287,322
3,429,107
29,811,321


1944
10,621,168
3,540,389
31,380,684


1945
10,435,212
3,478,404
31,990,334


1946
9,976,998
3,325,666
31,066,950


1947
9,454,253
3,151,418
30,103,180


1948
9,499,794
3,166,598
28,813,725


1949
9,087,351
3,029,117
26,744,457


1950
9,094,097
3,031,366
25,339,062


1951
9,282,152
3,094,051
24,870,564


1952
9,312,437
3,104,146
25,285,589


1953
9,085,688
3,028,563
24,789,130


1954
8,629,252
2,876,417
24,153,387


1955
8,635,522
2,878,507
24,324,623


1956
8,630,145
2,876,715
24,187,096


1957
8,872,468
2,957,489
24,839,755


1958
8,642,500
2,880,833
24,129,462


1959
8,885,364
2,961,788
25,023,044


Sources:


1955 Brewers' Almanack, page 62


1971 Brewers' Almanack, page 54





“At the time of revision (1956) increasing quantities of Australian Cape barley (6 rowed) are coming into the country again, but even so, beer in Britain is still brewed mainly from malts made from barleys grown in Britain.”
"Brewing Theory and Practice" by E. J. Jeffery, 1956, page 129.
You can see in the table that barley imports had risen from zero in the final war years to about their pre-war level by the mid-1950’s. But I don’t see foreign barley mentioned in brewing records.

Taking Whitbread as an example, in 1938 all their Ales contained malt made from Californian barley. About a third of malt in the case of Bitter and IPA, 15% for Mild. While their Porter and Stout had about 5% malt from Ouchak barley from Turkey. In 1954, when barley imports were at pre-war levels, there’s no foreign barley in any of their beers.*

After WW II British beer was being brewed mostly from British ingredients for the first time since the mid-19th century. Until the British hop industry collapsed in the 1980’s.





* Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/121, LMA/4453/D/01/121, LMA/4453/D/09/125 and LMA/4453/D/09/133.

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