With Brewery Closures, Germany Faces Brauereisterben

Germany and beer have long been synonymous. But that is changing. With Monday's closing of two large breweries, the crisis facing the industry appears to be deepening. An aging population is partly to blame. But beer, as it turns out, just isn't cool anymore.

The threatening new word made its appearance on the German media stage in the mid-1990s. Brauereisterben. Dubbed after the term for Germany's dying forests, the word predicted the decline of the nation's breweries. The frothy favorite of thirsty Germans, the beer brewing industry started warning 10 years ago, was heading for a crisis. More and more beer-swilling Teutons seemed to be turning away from hops and malt and towards a healthier lifestyle of designer water and juice. To traditionalists in Germany and abroad, for whom the words "Germany" and "beer" belong together like sauerkraut and bratwurst, it's a horror come true.

As it turns out, the fear-mongerers were right.

On Monday, two large German breweries bit the dust. The Oetker Group, one of Germany's largest producers of beer, announced the closing of the 133-year-old Berliner Kindl brew factory in Berlin and the Brinkhoff Brewery in the western German city of Dortmund. Total jobs lost: 450. More ominously, experts in the brewing industry say the closures, just the most recent in an ongoing downward trend within one of Germany's highest profile industries are unlikely to be the last.

"There are many negative trends," warns Stefan Leppin, spokesman for the Radeberger Group, a major brewing operation also owned by Oetker. "We assume that consumption of beer in Germany will continue to drop and that the market will continue to consolidate. The German beer market is, on the whole, oversaturated by at least 30 percent."

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http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,340366,00.html

x(

i LOVED the fact that nearly EVERY town, no matter how small, had its OWN BEER!

that is one of the BEST things about traveling through Germany!

*sigh*

guess i better get back there sooner rather than later

Beer just isn't cool anymore? WTF?

:wtf:
As far as I'm concerned, Germany is dead to me. :grr:

A while back I had friends visit from England. One had worked for years in management for a famous brewery, the name of which most Americans would recognize as that of one of England's best. The other owned an upscale pub in London. Their favorite American brew? Ice House! They loved it and took some home with them after their visit.

The times they are a-changing. And not for the better for those who like fine brew.

The labels will continue, of course.

had in Germany (Berlin, actually). I thought it was good, but what did I know back then? I came from Ohio where Stroh's was considered great beer!

BTW - I wasn't underage then...by German law, that is...

The Brewer's school at my University cooperates (or used to) with Kindl. Finding a new brewery might be a problem, especially considering that there are only two Universities for brewers left (Berlin and Weihenstephan).

Also this means that there now is only a single brewery (Schultheiss) in the world left brewing the traditional Berliner Weisse - probably the best summer beer on earth.

I couldn't believe it. It doesn't sell that well here, why would THEY want it? Higher alcohol content was the only reason I could come up with. Sad.

Which manages to produce something, certainly not beer, even viler (sic!) than the US Bud.

Is that possible? Well, yes, I guess it is.


What are Germans drinking instead? That would be very disturbing if the answer is horrifying mainstream American "beer."


yes, I am a beer snob and I make no apologies for it. :)

I actually prefer a Miller Lite to a Guiness

with my hands over my eyes).

OK, you're forgiven...Guiness is a stout, not a "beer."

Are you serious? :)

I like cheap, Lite beer. No joke. I like to knock 'em back. Guinness and other 'fancy' brews make me feel bloated.
I do like a Guinness or a Bass or a Sam Adams every now and then (there is a local micro called Copperhead Ale that i like as well) but if i am gonna get pissed, I grab a 12 pack of Natural Light and get down

:beer:

:toast:

Every road project I ever saw there had beer bottles strewn all over the place. A local contractor redid the latrines in our barracks and they drank all day long-once they ran out and tried to buy some from us.

I have family in Russia and they cam over here a few years ago for a few weeks.
These people drink vodka like it is Diet coke. They could put me under the table and still be ... normal.
To be considered a drunk in Russia is nearly impossible

Drinking on the job is now a major no-no.

:hi:

I only wish my boss let me knock a few back on the clock

:toast:

My first 'real' job was at a small consulting firm... Dennis would always let us bring in a couple cases on Fridays. Ahhhh, good times. :)

The supermarket around the corner has an offer : €3 for a 20 0.5 liters box of Oettinger :scared: .

Should I buy that swill to prop up the per-capita beer consumption numbers, or rather invest in locally brewed quality?

After all I can't allow the blame to fall at the feet of the young people.

:kick:

Just when I was going to visit. No beer??????

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

In fact I've read somewhere that the small breweries are faring better than the big ones.

:hi:
:toast:

most medium-small to medium large towns had their own breweries turning out some heavenly stuff. I'm a beer snob, too. (Local favorites: Alaskan Amber and Tacoma Pale Ale) The only strain of beer I had in Germany that I didn't like was CrystalWeizen; too bitter, not enough flavor. All of the others were out of this world! Here's to Germany's small brewers and their golden water of Gemutlich! :toast::beer::toast::beer::toast: