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More stuff from the Brewers' Guardians that have just become available on Google Books. They should keep me in material for posts for month.
Today we're looking at some numbers about breweries and beer production.
"The World‘s Beer Production.-—The Austrian brewers’ periodical Gambrinus publishes in accordance with custom a tabular statement of the beer production and taxation in the world. It appears therefrom that in nineteen countries the enormous sum of 173,662,717 florins is yielded by taxes on the production of beer. The total beer production is set down at 236,319,397 hectos, deducting the quantity brewed in those countries in which no beer tax is levied, 231,701,652 hectos remain. Comparing the latter quantity with the yield of the brewing tax, it is seen that each hectolitre of beer pays on an average 1.34 florins. Whilst in the German Beer Excise District the tax per hectolitre is only 47 kreuzers, in Austria it is 2.18 florins. With the exception of a few unimportant countries from a beer-brewing point of view, as Roumania, Greece, &c., Austria can boast of having the highest tax on beer. In Austria-Hungary, in 1889, there were 1,952 breweries at work, in which 13,728,431 hectos. of beer were brewed (as compared with 13,184,026 hectos. in the preceding year). The revenue accruing therefrom to the State was 25,325,252 florins (24,358,773 florins). The malt used amounted to 3,549,564 centners, and the hops to 102,800 centners only. In the German Empire, in 1889, there were 25,434 breweries at work, and their total production was 47,602,939 hectos. of beer (1888, 26,240 breweries, 47,243,706 hectos. production). The amount of 36,691,500 florins was collected in taxes; 18,208,410 ctrs. of malt was consumed, and 385,000 ctrs. of hops. In Bavaria, of 6,930 breweries, only 6,881 were at work; they consumed 6,339,144 ctrs. (as compared with 5,952,424 ctrs. in previous year), and produced 14,064,842 hectos. of beer, the tax using to 15,964,250 florins. In the other countries there were 22,840 breweries, producing 112,331,347 hectos. of beer, and consuming 43,320,160 ctrs. of malt, and 1,198,686 ctrs. of hops; the taxes yielded 174,302,645 florins."
"The Brewers' Guardian 1890", 1890, page 259.
I've put that information into a nice table because it's much easier to understand:
| Breweries, beer production, materials and tax 1888 - 1889 |
|
breweries |
production |
tax (florins) |
|
|
|
1888 |
1889 |
1888 |
1889 |
1888 |
1889 |
malt |
hops |
| Austria-Hungary |
|
1,952 |
13,184,026 |
13,728,431 |
24,358,773 |
25,325,252 |
3,549,564 |
102,800 |
| German Empire |
26,240 |
25,434 |
47,243,706 |
47,602,939 |
|
36,691,500 |
18,208,410 |
385,000 |
| Bavaria |
|
6,930 |
|
14,064,842 |
|
15,964,250 |
6,339,144 |
|
| other countries |
|
22,840 |
|
112,331,347 |
|
174,302,645 |
43,320,160 |
1,198,686 |
| total |
|
|
|
236,319,397 |
|
316,667,992 |
|
|
| Source: |
| "The Brewers' Guardian 1890", 1890, page 259. |
And people think that there are a lot of breweries nowadays. Almost 7,000 breweries in Bavaria alone. It's amazing that more beer was brewed in Bavaria than in the whole of Austria-Hungary. Especially when you take their populations into account: Bavaria 5,595,000, Austria-Hungary 40,066,600.
I've also derived some numbers of my own about the average amount of hops used per hectolitre:
| Hop usage 1889 |
| Country |
hops kg/hl |
| Austria |
0.37 |
| Germany |
0.40 |
| other countries |
0.53 |
| UK |
0.53 |
| Sources: |
| "The Brewers' Guardian 1890", 1890, page 259. |
| “The Brewers' Society Statistical Handbook 1988” page 7 |
| Brewers' Almanack 1928, pages 110 and 111 |
I had expected an even bigger difference between the UK and everywhere else. The UK figures are from 1902, incidentally.
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