Downfall

The Drinks Business reports on concerns that German beer is losing its lustre both at home and abroad.

Shocking new figures from the Statistisches Bundesamt office have revealed that global interest in German beer is rapidly diminishing alongside continued ambivalence for local beer in Germany itself. Assessing 2024 figures from the country’s Federal Statistical Office, EWN it was highlighted how Germany exported 1.45 billion litres of beer last year — marking a 6% decline compared to 2014. Notably, more than half of these exports (55.7%) were shipped to fellow EU member states, showing that domestic thirst had already started to wane.

Granted, alcohol consumption has dropped across many global markets, coinciding with growing public interest in health and wellness products. Added to this, non-alcoholic beer has been on the rise, seeing a boom in sales and offering a way for drinkers to adapt their drinking habits. But why has all of this had such a detrimental impact on German beer?

However, this needs to be taken in context, and I doubt whether it’s any worse than the decline in beer sales in other countries, prompted by increasing health concerns and anti-alcohol sentiment. Germany’s export figure is still well over three times the 411 million litres exported by the UK, and German drinkers consume half as much again as we do, at 94.4 litres per head against 64. A fall of 6% over ten yeards is hardly “rapidly dimishing”. German brewing is still a massive business, and enjoys a massive domestic market.

However, Germany is immensely proud of its brewing tradition as one of the key players in the development of lager, which is now the world’s dominant beer style. In contrast, while we tend to regard ourselves as a nation of beer-drinkers (perhaps somewhat unjustifiably) we are distinctly equivocal about our own brewing heritage. The average quality of beer consumed in Germany is considerably higher than that in this country, where the market is dominated by domestically-brewed international lagers.

I have to declare an interest here, as I am a big fan of German beer, and would regard it as my principal beer indulgence. I’m really not interested in drinking the likes of Stella and Madri, but am happy to fork out twice as much for the authentic German equivalent, while the modern premium craft beers entirely pass me by. I mostly buy these from the excellent Bottle Stop off-licence in Bramhall, but also from other sources such as Lidl’s Festbier pack. It only adds up to one or at most two bottles a week, but I’m happy to treat myself occasionally. If I had to name a favourite, it would probably be the distinctive, intensely hoppy Jever Pilsener from the north of the country, but I also very much enjoy the Bavarian Helles style.

While German beer has a high reputation internationally, it has never really taken off amongst the global beer brands in the same way that other European brewers such as Carlsberg and Heineken have done. German beers often appear as premium options, but they have never conquered the mainstream. AB InBev made some attempts to promote Löwenbräu as a global brand, and for a while Beck’s had a considerable reputation in the UK, before its owners decided to trash its image by reducing its strength from 5% to 4%. But there are no German brands amongst the world’s top twenty beers.

Despite the busy scenes in famous venues such as Hofbräuhaus in Munich, in fact Germany consumes a much higher proportion of beer at home than the UK. Statistics produced by Brewers of Europe show the relative proportions between on and off trade being, in 2015, 49/51 in the UK and 23/77 in Germany. The share of the on-trade will have further diminished since then in both countries. So it is a beer market with a very different structure.

German brewers have sometimes been criticised for a lack of innovation. However, while the country is generally known for pale lagers, it produces a huge variety of other styles such as Dunkel, Bock, Altbier, Kölsch, Weizenbier, Berliner Weisse, Rauchbier and Steinbier. The argument that it is all the same doesn’t hold water. And would it really be that desirable for German brewers to be trying to produce ersatz IPAs?

Germany also has the Reinheitsgebot beer purity law, which restricts ingredients to barley malt, hops, yeast and water, plus wheat malt for wheat beers. It does not apply to imports due to EU competition law. This originated in Bavaria in the 16th century with the noble intention of preventing the adulteration of beer with inferior adjuncts. However, it could be said to holding German brewing back, as most other major brewing nations, notably its neighbour Belgium, embrace other ingredients not so much for cheapness as to add different character to beer. I recently wrote about Thornbridge’s Union beers, which include expensive invert sugar to achieve a traditional English pale ale character.

The all-malt requirement does tend to give all German beers, even the so-so ones, a distinctive full-bodied character and a kind of austere purity. The variation between different brands of Pilsner or Helles is certain considerably less than that, say, between classic British bitters. This could be seen as a limiting factor. None of the leading British lager brands are German in origin, and all have a noticeably sweeter flavour than typical German beers.

While both these factors could be regarded as holding German beer back to some extent, on the other hand they demonstrate a reluctance to lower standards. It is certainly true that German brewing has shown a decline both domestically and in export markets, but it remains a powerhouse compared with its British equivalent. This is only a source of concern because Germany was so proud of its brewing traditions in the first place. And, in a sense, maybe German brewers deserve praise for sticking to what they do best rather than chasing every passing fad.

It’s a pity, though, that Wetherspoon’s, amongst their extensive array of bottled “world lagers” don’t have a single German offering. I occasionally used to enjoy a Krombacher when they stocked it.