Tuesday 25 August 2015

Adnams output by type 1940 - 1951

Brewing records often contain more information than just a record of a particular brew. Things like the amount of tax paid in a month. And from that it’s possible to pluck other handy stuff. Like how much was being brewed of each type of beer.

Here’s an example from Adnams:


It’s simple enough to use the amount of duty paid to work out which beer it refers to. There only were four beers and each had a different gravity. Though it is slightly complicated by it being a month when the rate of duty increased, meaning there are two sets of figures for each beer.

This is what I derived from the information:

Adnams output in April 1940
beer OG barrels gallons % of total
XX 1029 790.50 28,458 66.89%
PA 1039 201.08 7,239 17.02%
DS 1042 46.42 1,671 3.93%
XXXX 1055 143.75 5,175 12.16%
total 1,181.75 42,543
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 27

Basically, it tells us that Adnams brewed mostly Mild. It amounted to more than two thirds of their output, the other third mostly being split fairly evenly between Bitter and Old Ale. Only tiny amounts of Stout were brewed.

A few months later and there had been some changes:

Adnams output in August 1940
beer OG barrels gallons % of total
XX 1027 134.64 4,847 8.55%
XX 1028 132.56 4,772 8.42%
XX 1029 911.14 32,801 57.87%
PA 1039 301.83 10,866 19.17%
DS 1042 46.42 1,671 2.95%
XXXX 1055 47.83 1,722 3.04%
total 1,574.42 56,679
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 27

Total production had increased a fair bit, from 1,181 barrels to almost 1,600 barrels. Three quarters was now Mild and output of Old Ale had declined considerably. While the percentage of Bitter produced had increased a little.

A few year further into the war and the beer range was down to just three:

Adnams output in March 1944
beer OG barrels gallons % of total
XX 1027 1,137.97 40,967 64.48%
PA 1036 458.11 16,492 25.96%
DS 1039 168.72 6,074 9.56%
total 1,764.81 63,533
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 31

Total output was up again, as was the percentage of Bitter brewed. Surprisingly, the amount of Stout had increased, too. But there may well have been several months’ supply brewed in March, as there was none made the following month or in July:

Adnams output in April 1944
beer OG barrels gallons % of total
XX 1027 1,051.64 37,859 66.62%
PA 1036 526.83 18,966 33.38%
total 1,578.47 56,825
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 31

Adnams output in July 1944
beer OG barrels gallons % of total
XX 1027 1,310.08 47,163 76.88%
PA 1036 393.97 14,183 23.12%
total 1,704.06 61,346
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 31
By the time the war was just about over the proportion of Bitter brewed had just about doubled compared to 1940:

Adnams output in March 1945
beer OG barrels gallons % of total
XX 1027 1,140.28 41,050 66.11%
PA 1036 524.69 18,889 30.42%
DS 1039 59.89 2,156 3.47%
total 1,724.86 62,095
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 32

By 1951 the amount brewed was back down to around the level of 1940:

Adnams output in September 1951
beer OG barrels gallons % of total
XXX 1031 736.19 26,503 59.58%
PA 1036 450.81 16,229 36.48%
DS 1039 48.61 1,750 3.93%
XXXX 1054 33.94 1,222 2.75%
total 1,235.61 44,482
Source:
Adnams brewing record Book 32

And Bitter was rapidly closing in on Mild. The Old Ale was back, but far less was brewed than in 1940. Though, surprisingly, the gravity of XXXX was just about at its pre-war level.

I think we’ve learned some useful stuff about the long slow swing from Mild to Bitter. Looks to me as if WW II spurred it along.

2 comments:

Bailey said...

Do you think the difficulty in obtaining sugars during and after the war might have triggered the switch?

Ron Pattinson said...

Bailey,

yes, I'm sure that's what it was. Sugar could be used in all sorts of food products, unlike some other beer ingredients, so supplies to brewers were cut.