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Time for more tables? Yes! We'll be focusing on the yesr 1865. Specifically, brewery output in London and Vienna that year.

If you read this blog regularly, you'll be aware that London was the birthplace of industrial brewing. The Porter breweries of the 18th century were the largest and most mechanised ever seen. For a century, continental Europe lagged far behind.

Thanks to the efforts of one Anton Dreher, Vienna was the first continental city where brewing was conducting on a scale approaching that in Britain. Dreher's brewery in Kleinschwechat on the edge of Vienna quickly established itself as the largest on the continent, mostly due to its early adoption of the BAvarian method of brewing. Or bottom-fermentation, as we know it.

Let's compare the output of the breweries of London and Vienna in 1865.

First London:


Output of London breweries in 1865 brewery barrels hl Barcaly Perkins 415,142 679,405 Whitbread 236,418 386,912 Truman, Hanbury 537,189 879,142 Reid and Co 277,757 454,566 Mann, Crossman & Paulin 203,117 332,413 Total 1,669,623 2,732,438 Source: The British Brewing Industry, 1830-1980 T. R. Gourvish & R.G. Wilson, pages 610-611


Now Vienna:


Output of Viennese breweries in 1865 place output (Austrian eimer) output (hl) Kleinschwechat 408,080 230,995 Liesing 275,200 155,778 St. Marx 209,600 118,645 Brunn 164,694 93,225 Hüttendorf 139,477 78,951 Jedlersee 153,140 86,685 Ottakring 150,270 85,061 Simmering 123,750 70,049 Nussdorf 99,500 56,322 Wien (Lichtenthal) 90,550 51,256 Wien (Ungargasse) 84,300 47,718 Schöllenhof 78,540 44,458 Währing 74,640 42,250 Fünfhaus 72,200 40,869 Gaudenzdorf 65,180 36,895 Grinzing 63,240 35,797 Neudorf 63,150 35,746 Döbling 47,600 26,944 Hernals 39,800 22,529 Leopoldsdorf 39,500 22,359 Perchtoldsdorf 38,241 21,646 Wien (Margarethen) 33,500 18,963 Total 2,514,152 1,423,142 Average 114,279.64 64,688.26 Source: “Bericht über der Welt_Ausstellung zu Paris im Jahre 1867, volume 7”, 1868, page 126.
Dreher's brewery was still smaller than the largest in London,. but was closing in on Whitbread.

Of course, Vienna's breweries were later overshadowed by those of Bohemia and Bavaria. Their role in the devlopment of European brewing, in particular the spread of bottom-fermentation, has been largely forgotten. Much as the Viennese style of amber Lager has retreated into obscurity. Shame.


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