Beer Production During Ww11

[chamois]

Hi all

I'm puzzled about all this beer that seems to flow during TV Series such as Foyle's War. Despite the fact that most of the UK seemed to obtain all their food via ration coupons, these programmes seem to imply that there was no restriction on beer production or consumption. Was this really the case?

I know that a certain Welsh brewery called Felinfoel Brewery achieved the merit of being the first brewery to send canned beer to the front line, but I'm puzzled about how it could be made. For example, were brewers regarded as some form of reserved occupation that avoided compulsory conscription like the miners? Where did the raw materials come from during the war given that most foodstuffs seemed to be rationed? It just seems to me that beer flew just as freely during wwii as it does now. Curiously, I can find nothing about this on the internet.

Thanks

[Buenchico]

Scroll down to 'Beer on the Home Front', starting at paragraph 3, and read through until the end of 'Beer Afloat':
http://allaboutbeer.com/article/beer-goes-to-war/

[woofgang]

there's a book about it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brewing-Victory-Brewers-Beers-World/dp/071882928X

[heathfield]

Interesting to read about a brewery ship in Chris's link. But it says that after 1945 "Such a project was never undertaken again". Yet I'm positive that during the Korean war I read newspaper reports that, we, the British, had a brewery ship stationed in Korea to supply our troops. Can't find anything on the net about it - maybe the quality of the beer produced was so awful it's best not remembered!

[Peter Pedant]

It is an American site:
I didnt think DORA limited licensing hours

Around 1916 there sprung up the 'Shell controversy' - the army said they coldnt get enough shells and so couldnt win the war !
and itw as this which was used as an excuse to limit hours of pubs.
The highly paid munitions workers were meant to be spending too much time in the pubs getting tiddly whilst our boys were dying in the trenches