Introduction
The Great War started with cavalry and soldiers charging the enemy with sabers but by the end of the last battle, tanks were storming the field. During the four years of war, the world saw so many changes in various aspects of everyday life. Most of the changes weren’t caused by destruction or military planning. Pubs and beers in the UK were affected by World War I in a way that not many pint lovers expected or approved of.
This is a story about the sacrifices that the pub industry had to take to ensure victory for the allies.
Shorter work hours
Up until 1914, you could walk into a pub and get a pint of beer practically any time of the day. The usual work hours at the time were between 5 in the morning and a half hour past midnight. With the ability to get a drink 20 hours a day, factory workers had the chance to soak their war-time troubles at any time.
From my experience as a scribbler, not even the best essay writing service would be able to maintain a high level of quality and productivity with more than half of the staff coming to work drunk and use their lunch break to get even more vitamin B(eer) into their system. Similar thoughts must have gone through the British PM’s mind as David Lloyd George announced the new policy regarding the work hours of British pubs.
The idea of the imperial government was to prevent accidents and improve the productivity of factory workers, especially those that made shells, munitions, and other products that had a direct impact on the battlefield. As a result, Defense of the Realm Act, better known as D.O.R.A. assured in a new era in the pub industry, setting twofold working hours for Britain’s drinking houses from noon to 2:30 pm and those who wanted to have a drink later in the evening had to choose a period between 6 pm and 9 pm to visit a working pub.
Those of you who are too young to remember should know that the afternoon closing was in effect decades after the war was over until it was banished in the 1980s.
The impact on beer
The implementation of D.O.R.A. was not only affecting the working hours, although there were always some people who knew their way around town just enough to get a drink at any time of the day. If you were to walk into a pub with your friend during the Great War, it was prohibited to buy that person a beer. Although this rule sounds extreme, placing you in danger of getting arrested for buying your date a drink, the idea behind was to cut down the use of alcohol in wartime.
U boats were constantly blocking trade routes, making it almost impossible to import or export goods without losing at least a portion of the shipment. This forced the British government to take action and triple the taxes on beer, as wheat supply was scarce. The prices and taxes went up, however, the production rates and gravity of beer declined. By decision of Food Controller, brewers were limited to several levels of gravity, each with standardized price, but also generally weaker than before the war. It was also the rule of FC to set a production barrier at 11.47 thousand standard barrels of beer annually, which was somewhere around the third of the 1914 production volume.
When the war was over, the drinking restrictions were lifted by the year of 1919. However, the strength of the British beer was never the same again as it was in days before Austria-Hungary decided to test the endurance of Serbia and its allies.
Conclusion
Alcohol in the war times is often seen with different eyes; some people find consolation in drink, while others call wartime drinkers escapists. No matter which side of the ally you’re on, always keep in mind to drink responsibly and to be responsible to those who drink.
About the Author:
Special thanks to Justin Osborne for this Great Beer Now guest post! Justin is a writer at uk essays, he loves to share his thoughts and opinions about education, writing and blogging with other people on different blogs and forums. Currently, he is working as a content marketer at best essay writing service.
Interesting reading. Like you said it’s important to be responsible when drinking
I love history and this is a great post. I didn’t know about D.O.R.A. and that had to suck for bars AND the people who wanted to visit them. It’s also quite interesting that those hours went into the 1980s. That’s a long time after the WWI. I’ve been around quite a while but still a little young to remember those hours. Thanks for the history lesson!
This is a wonderful post, and I had no idea about a lot of this stuff. With local breweries manufacturing hand sanitizer at the moment, I think they’re going to be super successful once people are allowed outside again.
I enjoyed reading this post about how WWI changed pub culture. Alcohol definitely has a lot of history! When we were in Belgium this past summer, we learned of the beer pipeline in Bruges. My hubby insisted I take his picture with the exposed piece for tourists to see.