Summer fairy tales failed: Not even the European Football Championship can lift German beer sales

Despite the European Football Championship in their own country, the German breweries sold historically little beer last year. According to industry assessment, smaller companies in particular are at the scabbard because there are high investments in order to make the energy-intensive brewing process climate-neutral.

In Germany, sales decreased by 2.0 percent to 6.8 billion liters compared to the last year, as the Federal Statistical Office reports. This has been the lowest level since the new version of the beer tax in 1993, which forms the basis of statistics.

Even the recovering export could not sustainably improve the balance of the brewers. The exports grown by 1.6 percent make up the significantly smaller proportion of total sales. This is 8.3 billion liters, which means a decline of 1.4 percent for the previous year. The trend towards a healthier lifestyle with less alcohol and the general aging of society are essential reasons for the lower paragraph with growing population.

Football turbo does not ignite

The German Brewer Association describes the year 2024 as a roller coaster ride: had the beer sales of 2.5 percent in Germany until May 2024, the market surprisingly turned into the minus over the summer. The “Weather Caprioles” contributed to this, with rain periods in spring and summer, the association announced. “Many visits to the beer garden literally fell into the water, and events around the European Football Championship were also affected. Nasse June was the worst beer month in the previous year with minus 13.5 percent.”

The sales figures do not include alcohol -free varieties that are not taxed and have had a continuous upward trend for years. The German Brewer Association expects that every tenth beer brewed beer in Germany will soon be alcohol-free. “The times when non-alcoholic was a pure” driver beer “are long over. Today, non-alcoholic beer is a lifestyle drink that convinces with its diversity and taste,” says the association in Berlin.

Production must be rebuilt

The success of the non -alcoholic beers cannot hide the structural crisis of the small -scale industry with around 1,500 companies. When brewing, large quantities of liquid are first heated and then cooled again, which is necessary for a lot of energy, which has so far been mostly from fossil fuels.

Veltins boss Volker Kuhl sees the industry before a nail sample: “In many parts of the country, consumers have to seriously worry how the small-scale brewing industry will continue in the future.” Market structure and trade power on the one hand as well as procurement costs and an investment for energetic transformation on the other hand, many breweries would bring in a “existence-endangering sandwich position from which nobody can help you out.”

The Flensburg brewery has already started the renovation, creates around 10 percent of its electricity requirements from its own photovoltaic systems. In addition, a new brewhouse is to be built. According to technology chief Michael Seip, the energy transformation is further advanced. For example, with systems for biogas extraction made of wastewater and heat pumps that pull their energy out of waste heat.

The fifth largest beer market in the world has long been characterized by considerable overcapacity. For some breweries, the air has already become so tight that there were initial business tasks of smaller companies in 2024, says Veltins manager Kuhl. A year earlier, the market-leading Radeberger Group and the Frankfurt Binding brewery closed one of the country’s largest brewery.

The example of the largest German beer brand Krombacher shows that even the big brands cannot always escape the downward trend. The family company from Kreuztal in North Rhine-Westphalia names the steamed economic climate and the rainy spring as reasons for its 1.1 percent beer sales.