HC Deb 04 December 1916 vol 88 cc676-7W
Sir L. CHIOZZA MONEY

asked the President of the Board of Trade if he will state the quantities of the various materials now permitted to be employed by the brewing trades; and what proportion of these materials has to be imported?

Mr. PRETYMAN

The following quantities of materials were used in brewing during the twelve months ended 30th September, 1915:

Bushels.
Malt 44,363,000
Unmalted corn 80,000
Cwts.
Rice, rice grits, flaked rice, maize grits, flaked maize and other similar preparations 1,236,000
Sugar, including its equivalent of syrups, glucose and sac-charum 2,678,000
Lbs.
Hops 52,320,000
Hop substitutes 15,000
Under the provisions of the Output of Beer (Restriction) Act, 1916, the quantity of beer to be brewed in the year commencing 1st April last (and in subsequent periods whilst the Act remains in operation) is restricted to an extent which it is estimated will result in a total brew of about 26,000,000 standard barrels for the twelve months, as compared with 30,250,000 barrels in the year ended September, 1915, a reduction of 14 per cent. The result will be to reduce in the same proportion the quantities of the various materials used in brewing. Of the materials used, the whole of the sugar, maize and rice are of course imported. Exact particulars of the relative quantities of home-grown and foreign barley used by brewers are not available, but from inquiries made through the Commissioners of Customs and Excise it was estimated roughly that about 60 per cent. of the entire quantity of materials used was home grown. The effect of reducing brewing by 14 per cent. is of course not merely to reduce the use of the imported materials by that percentage, but, by setting free home-grown materials for other uses, to reduce the imports further by the amount of home-grown materials which are saved. On the whole it was calculated that the effect of reducing the output as provided in the Act would be to reduce the imports of materials suitable for brewing by an amount equal to about one-third of the actual weight of imported materials used by the brewing trades in 1914–1915.