ABSTRACT
Until the mid-nineteenth century the Danish brewing industry comprised a small number of breweries in Copenhagen (where the trade had long been guild-regulated), and numerous small, provincial breweries which faced competition from widespread homebrewing. By 1880, there were sixteen breweries in Copenhagen, all relatively large establishments with an average of about twenty workers. In comparison, there were about 200 breweries in the provinces, of which more than 160 employed only a few workers or were run by the owner himself. Most produced hvidtøl (a low fermented household beer of medium gravity), traditionally drunk along with schnapps.1 The provincial hvidtøl breweries were labour-intensive establishments, whereas the larger Copenhagen breweries were more capital-intensive, often using steam power by the late nineteenth century.
