GERMAN BEER-DRINKING.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXVII, Issue 13, 16 January 1891, Page 4

GERMAN BEER-DRINKING.

A very curious document has just been published. It is a report on the production and consumption of beer m Berlin m the year 1888. There were sixty-nine breweries m the city, and these produced m the twelve months rather more than 57,000,000 gallons of liquor. It must not be all called beer, for much of it, according to the report, was produced without the agency of either malt or hops ; sugar and quassia, and even worse, taking the place of the old-fashioned and more wholesome materials. The annual consumption per head of the population was 308 pints, or 39 pints more than m 1883. It may be taken for granted that m Berlin a quarter of the population consists of children of tender years, who drink no beer at all ; that, of the remainder, one-half consists of women, of whom not more than fifty per cent, ever touch beer m any considerable quantity; and, that, consequently, all the beer is practically consumed oy seventwelfths of the people. The number of pints of beer drunk m 1888 m Berlin was 446,600,000 ; the population was 1,450,000 ; and seven-twelfths of the population equalled, say, 845,850 souls. Each of these thirsty souls, therefore, must have consumed on the average about 530 pints, or nearly ,a pint and a half & day. And, when it is borne m mind that, even among Germans, many men abstain from beer altogether, it must be admitted that the figures are pretty high. The value of the beer consumed was, it may be added, two and a quarter millions sterling.