In Part I, I stated hard data was elusive to substantiate that lager sales trumped ale and stout by the 1950s in Iraq.
Nonetheless, I did finally find some interesting statistics. The (1953) Iraq: Economic and Commercial Conditions, a publication of H.M. Stationary office, stated a brewery of British design went into production in August 1948. Further, in 1950-1951 it produced 2,200 thousand L (or 2,200,000 L).
That equates to 13,443 bbl (Imp). The brewery of course was The Iraq Brewery as I mentioned earlier. Its output at the time was ale and stout only, as its first lager only came on board in 1962.
The Annual Statement of Trade of the United Kingdom for 1951 stated the U.K. exported to Iraq in 1951 3,763 bulk barrels of beer. Of course this did not include Ireland, and we saw that Guinness was shipping stout to Iraq.
Still, even taking in Ireland the total sent from the British Isles probably did not exceed 5,000 bulk barrels. Interestingly, a bulk barrel is not an Imperial barrel. The term is a freight term, and denotes five cubic feet. The Imperial barrelage sent to Iraq by the U.K. equates to a lower figure by my conversion, 3,255 bbl Imperial.
Again, even factoring Irish stout, it could not have approximated or approached local production. As to types of beer, part of that U.K. export figure, unlike for Ireland, was lager, perhaps the majority but the percentage was not recorded.
We don’t know either how much beer came in from Europe. We have seen that European lager was increasingly available in 1950s Iraq. Belgian Pilsor from Lamot was imported as early as 1948, just one example.
If European lager imports equalled in 1951 the U.K./Irish exports, perhaps the total sent in was 10,000 bbl (Imp). That is still under the domestic production represented by The Iraq Brewery.
But the tide must have turned later in lager’s favour. The second brewery to start production in Iraq, The Eastern Brewery, debuted its Ferida lager in 1956, and did not make ale or stout to my knowledge.
Ferida was heavily advertised, and is still made.* With Dutch, German, and UK lagers imported through the 1950s ale and stout had to be decline, or so the tenor of adverts in the expatriate press would suggest.
On top of this, as I discussed earlier, an emigre Iraqi brewer discussed Iraq brewery history with an Irish Times journalist in 2006. He stated The Iraq Brewery’s stout was doing poorly and this impelled the brewery to make lager, which it first released, by my study, in 1962.**
The Iraqi brewer did not mention ale but I suspect that category was not going strong either by the late 1950s. Lager was the new beer star, one way or another, clearly.
It is true by 1960 beer imports were banned so two domestic companies were sharing the market, but I think it likely The Eastern Brewery was outpacing The Iraq Brewery by then, hence presumably why the latter decided to introduce a lager.
The departure of British military personnel in this period also likely boosted the fortunes of lager. Many Britons, especially of H.M. Forces, still drank the traditional ale and stout. But once they left it opened the door further to lager.***
The fact that Amstel of Holland arranged licensed production with The Eastern Brewery in 1962 seems to validate this. Amstel, a lager, was a Dutch brand. No British brewery ever sought to make an ale or stout in Iraq by a similar arrangement, or even a lager as far as I know.
In international terms lager’s prestige was attached to established Continental brewers, not the British, who in time largely turned to lager anyway. It would take longer for lager to capture a majority of the U.K. market than in former colonies and demesnes, but ultimately it happened just the same.
Sally Vincent’s sparkling news feature of 1960 foretold the future.
….
*The beer is currently styled Farida in English, see the website.
**My study suggests The Iraq Brewery debuted with Diana Ale, aka Diana Beer. Diana Stout followed a couple of years later (early 1950s).
***The last Forces departed from RAF Habbaniya in 1959. See in Military Wiki.