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15-03-2018, 07:05
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More numbers. I've a whole bucketful of fresh ones I want to consume before they go off. ANd I need to bash out some posts to cover when I'm away in the UK later this week (last week, when you read this).

One of the tables in the Brewers' Almanack that I particularly like is the one that lists the number of breweries by size. It gives a good insight into the structure of the UK brewing industry and how it changed around the turn of the 20th century.

The UK used to have a ridiculous of breweries. Most of them very small. Most the the ones in the under 1,000 barrels a year category would have been brewing well under it. For example, in 1842 26,817 of the 44,208 breweries in the UK brewed fewer than 100 barrels a year. Of those 26,817 8,180 produced fewer than 20 barrels a year.* Bugger all even for a pub brewery.

Even in 1914, the number of breweries producing more than 20,000 barrels a year was only 334. And just 54 more than 100,000 barrels. Meaning that the industry was still very fragmented, with a very large number of small producers. The vast majority of which were pub breweries. 2,357 in 1914, to be precise.**

I'm surprised to see the number in the half million barrels category go up and down in the late 19th century. I'd have expected it to keep increasing.



Number of Persons in the UK licensed as Brewers for Sale


Year ended Sept. 30.
Under 1,000.
1,000 and under 10,000.
10.000 and under 20,000.
20,000 and under 100,000.
100,000 and under 500,000.
500,000 and over.


1870
26,506
1,809
210
128
23
3


1875
21,181
1,864
260
194
25
4


1879
17,542
1,863
301
217
27
3


1880
16,770
1,768
272
203
23
4


1881
14,948
1,677
275
183
24
8


1885
12,608
1,537
270
187
27
4


1890
9,986
1,447
274
255
34
4


1895
7,213
1,162
267
256
34
5


1900
4,759
910
262
308
42
9


1905
3,787
832
232
280
40
9


1912
2,868
673
205
266
43
7


1913
2,760
615
210
271
42
8


1914
2,536
580
197
280
46
8


Source:


Brewers' Almanack 1922, page 117.



Who were the breweries producing over half a million barrels? Some are pretty obvious, like Guinness, Bass and Allsopp. Others you may not have heard of. I happen to have the numbers for 1884.

Note that all but the top three were based in London.



Largest UK breweries in 1884


Brewery
Beer Bands (barrels)


Guinness
1,300,000


Bass
1,000,000


Allsopp
850,000


Combe
500,000


Barclay
550,000


Watney
450,000


Truman
450,000


Charrington
400,000


Reid
350,000


Whitbread
300,000


Courage
300,000


Source:


Document ACC/2305/8/246 part of the Courage archive held at the London Metropolitan Archive


Note:


Output based on the cost of the brewing licence which was based on bands of output, the figure given is the top of the band into which the brewery's output fell.



Three of the breweries above, Watney, Combe and Reid, took part in the first big merger in 1898. Forming, er, Watney, Combe, Reid. A name which when I saw it on a pub door said "stay away" to me.



* "A Dictionary, Practical, Theoretical, and Historical, of Commerce and Commercial Navigation" by John Ramsay McCulloch, 1844, page 9.

** 1928 Brewers' Almanack, page 118.

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