Beer on Board
| Written by Rachel MacGregor; Digital Preservation Officer Although we’re known for our trade union archives we aim to reflect all aspects of labour history so this also includes the employer’s side of things, which means we hold a number of fascinating collections of trade associations. This includes the archives of the British Beer and Pub Association, which began life as the Brewer’s Society, representing the interests of Britain’s many breweries and promoting the brewing trade. The collection holds many fascinating stories and images amongst which are the papers relating to the provisioning of beer for the armed forces during the Second World War. As with all manufacturing industries the brewing trade had suffered from staff and supply shortages but the necessity of keeping the nation (and even more importantly) the troops in beer was one which exercised both the representatives of the industry as well as the government – nobody wants unhappy troops! – and in 1942 the predicted influx of US troops was causing much anxiety, as the files on “beer for troops” reveal. The US government requested 2 million barrels of beer, specifically lager of 3.2% ABV and chilled – not something the brewing industry felt it could achieve. The difficulty of brewing for the troops and at scale was not just a question of differences between British and American tastes (which were well understood) but also that the brewing industry were keen to avoid brewing what they termed “army beer” ie some generic institutional drink which might provoke as much outrage as a shortage. In general terms regional brewers were responsible for producing beer for the army in the different regions of the UK, keeping some of the characteristics of the local brew and there was a certain amount of co operation between the brewers to maintain access to grain, barrels and bottles necessary for production and distribution. A further problem was posed by trying to keep overseas troops supplied with beer. Much of Continental Europe had seen local breweries entirely destroyed by the war and by 1944 the government had to export beer to France, Belgium and Holland. Further afield in North Africa and India there was some local provision of beer but the shortage of bottles and the difficulties of brewing export strength beer that would then still be drinkable once it had reached its destination and been distributed remained an issue. Putting their heads together they came up with a plan. 
The Vessel “Menestheus” being towed through False Creek. Credit: James Crookall and City of Vancouver Archives. (Ref: CVA 260-1541 https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/vessel-menestheus-being-towed-through-false-creek-2) The scheme was bold – to kit out a naval vessel as a brewery and brew beer for the troops whilst in transit or provide it directly to the location where the troops were. The former MV Menestheus had been commandeered originally as a mine laying ship and then as an amenities ship when the proposal was made to try and build a working brewery onboard. In 1945 the now HMS Menestheus was sent to be kitted out in Canada and regular updates were posted by Launce McMullan who had been brought in to lead the experiment. McMullan was an erstwhile Head Brewer at Guinness (as his father had been before him) at that time serving in the Royal Navy (as part of the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve force, known as the “Wavy Navy”1 on account of their distinctive gold braid) stationed at Kirkwall in Orkney. McMullan, deemed “a clever fellow”, had a degree from Cambridge and was an associate of fellow Guinness employee and statistician William Sealy Gosset, writing the foreword to Gosset’s collected papers, published a couple of years earlier in 1942.2 Gosset’s statistical breakthrough (known as “Student’s t-test”) was developed to predict and control the quality of stout, where the ingredients presented a mixture of variables and the test provided a way of comparing the difference between batches, now a mainstay of a statistical methods. 
“The whole work of conversion turned out to be a far bigger job than had been expected, and one of the shipyards concerned was lacking in the technical skill, the organisation and the will to perform the unusual, in fact the unprecedented task of installing a brewery in a ship.” – Launce McCullan in his report to the Navy, 27th February 1946 (Ref: MSS.420/BS/4/3/6) McMullan sent back regular reports on progress in kitting out and then experimenting with beer production but was clearly unimpressed from the beginning: “…I nevertheless think that by starting to consider the problem from first principles a far simpler and cheaper plant requiring less space and less skilled attention could have been evolved.” There were numerous technical difficulties, not the least of which was getting the parts shipped to Canada in the first place. Furthermore eventual lack of success of the scheme might also have been poor timing, as the war was now beginning to draw to a close. The final letter in this file states very baldly: “the Admiralty Ship has now returned to its owners at Hebburn on Tyne, and all the brewing machinery and plant, etc is to be taken out of it, so that is the end of that chapter. I should imagine that a great deal of money has been wasted and a lot of trouble taken, unnecessarily, over this venture.” Access the catalogue for this collection here: https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/BLR/4/3 1.https://www.maritimefoundation.uk/publications/maritime-2023/the-wavy-navy-a-forgotten-legacy/ 2.https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.233812/page/n11/mode/2up https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/vessel-menestheus-being-towed-through-false-creek-2 James Crookall City of Vancouver Archives 04 March 2026 |