Beer: The Twentieth Century

This entry is a subtopic of Beer.

Beer in 1900

The central area for modern beer development and beer culture is the portion of Europe from Austria in the southeast to the British Isles in the northwest. The Nordic nations are also beer countries, but, with the exception of Denmark, they have not played a significant role. At the beginning of the twentieth century, ales dominated the market in the United Kingdom, the northern and western part of Germany, and Belgium. Lager had started its spread from Bavaria to the big cities in Germany and to the neighboring countries. It had also become rather well established in the United States, but the populace of the United Kingdom had not yet accepted it.

Beer Around the World

Around the world, Australia got Foster's beer, a lager, from the United States in 1888. East Africa received beer from the United Kingdom in 1922, and today, lager, ale, and sorghum beer are all brewed by African breweries. One of the best-known beers from that region is Tusker lager from Kenya. Guinness and Heineken also have large breweries in the area. In South Africa, lager is dominant. In 1904, China got its first lager, Tsingtao, and in 1916 the company was acquired by the Dai Nippon Beer Company in Japan. The Japanese then spread the beer-brewing culture to other parts of East Asia.

Beer in the United States

The United States—where the brewing industry was well established before 1900, with a very wide production of different kinds of beers such as ales, stouts, and lagers—experienced a golden age of brewing between about 1870 and 1919. This, however, came to a halt on January 16, 1919, when the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibited all alcoholic beverages, was ratified. Prohibition lasted from January 16, 1920, to December 5, 1933, when its repeal by the Twenty-first Amendment took effect. During this period, breweries had to survive on nonalcoholic products such as near beers, malted milk, ice cream, and so forth. Two of the surviving companies, Anheuser-Busch and Miller, ended up being two of the top three breweries of the world. The top ten breweries produced about one-third of the world production of 1.25 billion hectoliters (hL, equivalent to 33 billion gallons) in 1995.

World Production

During the twentieth century, world beer production increased from about 250 million hL (6.6 billion gallons) in 1900 to about 1.306 billion hL (34.5 billion gallons) in 1998, an increase of 522 percent. In 1900, production volumes in Germany and the United States were about equal and together constituted about half of the world production. In 1998, the United States produced 238 million hL (6.29 billion gallons) and Germany 112 million hL (2.96 billion gallons), which together represents only 27 percent of the world production. World production of beer was distributed by region in 1997 as follows: the Americas, 37%; Europe, 34%; the Far East, 23%; Africa, 4.5%; the South Pacific, 1.8%; and the Near East, 0.1%. The greatest increase in beer production is found in areas far away from the traditional beer countries—such as China, countries in Latin America, South Africa, and Turkey (an Islamic country). It is evident that they have evolved a new way of life. Two of the traditional beer countries, Germany and the United Kingdom, are still in the top ten in production, but they will probably soon be overtaken by some of the countries mentioned above.

World Per Capita Consumption

Per capita consumption of beer in different countries shows which people have beer as their natural and central beverage. The top ten countries in 1999, each with a per annum consumption of at least 88.1 liters (23.3 gallons) per person, are still from the old beer center of Europe, which stretches from the British Isles to Austria and up to Denmark (Table 1)—except for Australia, which got its beer traditions from the British colonization of the continent. The newcomers are Turkey, some Latin American countries, South Africa, and several European countries (including some that have traditionally been considered "wine countries"). Except for the Czech Republic, the Republic of Ireland, and Austria, the traditional beer countries show a decrease in per capita consumption (Table 1).

Table 1

Lager and Ale

During the twentieth century, a variant of pale lager, pilsner, became the big winner all over the world—in Australia, the United States, and even the old ale area of the British Isles. Only northwestern Europe is bucking the trend: In Belgium, Trappist-Abbey and brown ales are increasing in production, as are Altbier, Kölsch, and wheat beer in Germany. In the British Isles, bitter ale, pale ale, mild ale, Scotch ale, sweet stout, and barley wine are decreasing in consumption; only bitter stout is increasing. Consumption of draft beer in Great Britain for 1999 is as follows: lager, 44.8 percent; ale, 42.2 percent; stout, 6.3 percent. The remaining 6.7 percent of the total consumption concerns packaged beer of all types. It was not until after World War II that lager truly began to succeed in Great Britain, and it took about fifty years for it to achieve approximately 50 percent of the British market.

Beer Developments in the Twentieth Century

Characteristic of the development of beers and breweries during the twentieth century is the worldwide success of the American variant of the Bohemian lager, pilsner—crystal-clear pale-dry beer, often of the light type, with a low taste of malt and a low bitterness, frequently served very cold. Another trend is that the number of breweries has decreased, individual breweries have become bigger and bigger, and different companies have merged into great brewing conglomerates. In the United States, there were 750 brewing companies and plants in 1936; this number had decreased to 26 companies and 215 plants in 1989, despite a 440 percent increase in volume. Still another trend is the increase of popularity and consumption of beer in nontraditional beer-drinking areas such as Latin America, South Africa, and various parts of Asia. The exportation of beer is a huge worldwide business; Table 2 lists volumes for countries with large exports and imports.

The establishment of microbreweries, which started in 1981 and had increased to 500 breweries by 1992 in the United States, and has spread to other countries as well, is an interesting development that demonstrates the desire for high quality and diversity of beer. Other important developments are ice beer (made by freezing off some of the water); dry beer, with a very low content of residual sugar; light beer, with a low content of dextrins in the beer; low-alcohol beer (less than 1.5 percent alcohol by volume); and nonalcoholic beer (less than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume). Most important are the advances in biochemistry, which have allowed brewing to become an industry based on science and technology. The industry has progressed to the use of stainless steel vessels and containers, and all processes are fully automated and all by-products are taken care of. The expenses for beer production are dominated by costs for packaging, sales, production, and taxes; only a very small proportion of the costs is needed for raw materials.

Beer and Health

Calories, vitamins, and minerals. The effects on health of beer drinking depend to a large degree on which beer is consumed, how much, and by whom. Contents of alcohol, carbohydrates, and proteins differ greatly between low-and high-alcoholic beer. The nutritional value of heavy beer is significant, especially if the beer is unfiltered and contains yeast cells. The caloric value of beers varies from 276 kcal/L in alcohol-free beer, to 428 kcal/L in pilsner, to 660 kcal/L in a Doppelbock (double-strength bock beer—a heavy dark beer). For example, 360 ml (just over 12 fluid ounces) of ordinary beer with 419 kcal/L, 4.5% alcohol and 38 g/L carbohydrates will give about 5–12% of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of folate, niacin, vitamin B₆ (pyridoxine), riboflavin, and pantothenic acid; 10.3% RDA of magnesium; and 13.5% RDA of phosphorus. Thiamine and pantothenic acid amounts are rather low in beer in relation to the caloric content. This implies that other dietary sources of B-complex vitamins are needed. Beer also contains some chromium, which is needed for glucose and lipid metabolism. The amount of chromium present can be significant for chromium-deficient people. Further, the low content of sodium tends to counteract the water retention seen in heavy drinkers, which, in fact, may typically result from their additional salty food intake. Aside from the caloric content of modern filtered beer, it cannot be regarded as an important nutrient, since the vitamin and mineral contents are relatively low, but it does make a contribution. To make a complete meal with beer, a source of protein and fiber-rich vegetables should accompany the beer.

Table 2

Medical effects of beer. Although beer is a low-alcoholic beverage of less than 10% alcohol by volume (typically about 5 to 7 percent) in comparison with wine and spirits (about 10 to 50 percent), all the effects of alcohol must be considered. For reviews on this subject, see Cox and Huang (1991, 165–176) and Owades (2000, 19–26). Generally, beer has not been found to differ specifically in its physiological effects on a short-or long-term basis from other alcoholic beverages, if the effects are related to the amount of alcohol consumed. Beer also has the advantage of filling the stomach more quickly than wine and spirits and will give a slower increase of blood alcohol level. Heavy drinking may provoke diarrhea or vomiting and cause excessive urination, all of which flush vitamins and minerals out of the body. Heavy drinkers of alcohol may get dilated cardiomyopathy with specific intracellular changes, which is a kind of congestive heart failure. In 1884, it was described as Münchener Bierherz (Munich beer-heart) by Bollinger. This type of disease also occurred during the period of addition of cobalt to beer to stabilize its head.

In the past, alcohol has, in the medical literature, usually been connected to negative and hazardous effects on the body; however, in recent decades, a large number of clinical studies have shown that moderate drinking (about two to three drinks or twenty-five to eighty grams [about 0.88 to 2.8 ounces] of alcohol per day) decreases the risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in comparison with both a higher and a lower alcoholic consumption, and most studies indicate that there are no beneficial differences among alcoholic beverages (but see below). Subjective health has also been shown to be highest in persons with a moderate alcoholic consumption (100 to 199 grams [about 3.5 to 7.0 ounces] per week). The beneficial effects of alcohol might be explained by an increase of HDL-C (high-density lipoprotein-C), decreased levels of prothrombotic factors such as fibrinogen, and reduced platelet aggregability, vessel contractility, and pulmonary artery pressure in heart failure patients. Antioxidative compounds—which may decrease the oxidation of LDL (low-density lipoprotein) and the risk for atherosclerosis—such as polyphenols, gallic acid, rutin, epicatechin, and quercetin in red wine and in full-bodied and darker beers may have additional beneficial effects. The question of whether some alcoholic beverages have more prominent effects in these respects remains to be elucidated in further clinical studies. However, red wine has been proposed to be more efficient than other alcoholic beverages in a number of studies.

Hops and medical effects. Other effects of beer, such as the central nervous arousal and the sedative effects, can be explained by the general effects of alcohol. It has often been discussed whether compounds from hops might influence the physiological effects of beer. It is interesting to note that hops—dried, liquid extract, and tincture—are recommended by health-food specialists for various conditions: "Hops are stated to possess sedative, hypnotic, and topical bactericidal properties. Traditionally, they have been used for neuralgia, insomnia, excitability, priapism, mucous colitis, topically for crural ulcers, and specifically for restlessness associated with nervous tension headache and/or indigestion." (Newall, Anderson, and Phillipson 1996, 162–163). Antibacterial activity toward gram-positive bacteria is documented, but the sedative effect needs to be documented, as most of the studies are made with hops in combination with other herbs. Recurring suggestion has been made that hops and beer have estrogenic activity and that the infection of molds producing estrogenic mycotoxins is a significant problem. Recently, a potent phytoestrogen, 8-prenylnarigenin, has been identified in hops and shown to have a concentration in beer of about 100m/L, which is equivalent to a few mg/L estradiol or less. This concentration in beer is not considered to be detrimental, but handling and ingestion of hops might have estrogenic effects in humans. It is also possible that 8-prenylnaringin might contribute to the health-beneficial effects of moderate beer consumption.

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—Sven-Olle R. Olsson