ABSTRACT

By 1939 the British brewing industry had ‘reached a stage of calm and equilibrium’, with output and profits rising and ‘no great legislative or political problem to be faced’ (Vaizey 1960:36). It was a stage that was the product of relentless contraction and relative decline over the first forty years of the twentieth century. The number of breweries (including publican brewers) fell from 11,752 in 1903-4 to 567 in 1949-50 (Vaizey 1960:56). However, output also fell steeply, more than halving from 35 million barrels in 1900 to 16.6 million barrels in the early 1930s (Hawkins and Pass 1979:43). Though output grew to meet rising demand in the war years, shortages and rising prices of both barley and hops led to a marked reduction in the strength of beer and a steep rise in prices. The average original gravity of beer in 1936 was 1041°; by 1944, it had fallen to under 1035°. A pint of ordinary bitter cost 5d in 1936; by 1944, its price had risen to around 1s 1d (Vaizey 1960:42).