in Germany, falling beer consumption puts brewers in difficulty

Germans are drinking less and less beer. Some breweries are closing, others are reinventing themselves.

Across the Rhine, the symbol par excellence of Germany is struggling. Beer consumption fell by 4.5% in 2023. With 84 million hectoliters, the level of production remains more than honorable but the trend is well and truly established: year after year, consumption decreases. For the 1,500 German breweries, the situation is complicated: some have gone bankrupt, others must reinvent themselves to continue to exist.

When it’s time to leave the offices, the bars in the trendy Friedrichshain district of Berlin are full. On the tables and at the counter, lots of beers obviously, but not only that. Vanessa chose a non-alcoholic drink: “Everything has become expensive, I’m a student and I don’t have a lot of money left for leisure activities. And then, I’m starting to worry more about my health: for the past six months, I’ve been doing a lot of sport, I’m being more careful that I eat and drink less beer”, she explains. “Before, I could drink 5 to 8 beers, adds Rudi, I decreased and I am maximum at 3 beers when I go out in the evening… I am 53 years old and I don’t want to walk with a crutch when I’m 60 or have a damaged liver.”

“Alcohol-free” is becoming trendy

Alcohol-free beer, kombucha, green tea, vegetable juice… Those who prefer sobriety are increasingly spoiled for choice, and alcohol-free is taking hold, notes Nicole Klauss, sommelier in Berlin. “People are paying attention to their bodies. They are drinking less alcohol, eating less sweets, eating less meat. And I believe that this is a trend that will last, she analyzes. If you look at the press, there are many, many articles on ‘no alcohol’, ‘Drink less’. And there are more and more stores selling whiskeys, rum, gins, non-alcoholic wines.”lists Nicole Klauß.

“Now you have alcohol-free restaurants.”

Nicole Klauss, sommelier in Berlin

at franceinfo

These changes in habits do not really suit the business of brewers, already weakened by the Covid crisis, then by the surge in production costs. Additional costs that are difficult to amortize, regrets Holger Eichele, general director of the Brewers Federation: “The trade uses cheap beer prices to lure people into stores, and breweries cannot object for fear that their products will be removed from the shelves. In many cases, the price of the pack of beer has hardly changed over the last 30 years.he recalls.

Adapt to the market

Six million bottles of abbey beer leave the lines of the Neuzelle brewery each year, near the Polish border. Faced with market changes, director Stefan Fritsche has adapted: “Today we offer ten different products that are alcohol-free and it may be that one day we produce 60 to 70% alcohol-free drinks and only 30% alcohol. We have to react flexibly to the market. This is the only chance of survival for small breweries”he prophesies.

Despite the drop in consumption, Germany remains the leading European producer of beer. Brewers are now banking on Euro football to boost sales. The competition will take place this summer in Germany. In 2006, the country hosted the World Cup and beer consumption reached a record level, never equaled since.