Renaissance or rebellion? The new wave of German brewing

Please do not lump me in with those you mentioned. I never said or thought Germany was "beer Mecca," and I don't want others to believe the hype either.

Also, no matter the nostalgia of history and tradition, (This didn't work in fighting WWII with WWI tactics, either.) we live in the here and now and need to deal with the consumer today, and basically, the beer consumer is dieing off and not being replenished. Why? See above.

Complete and utter BS. I work for 2 marketing agencies and these Germans do marketing quite well. The beer sector does boring and bad marketing b/c they've become complacent and don't see the need to be creative.

Sure, they go to the fests in small towns b/c there's nothing else to do and that's where their friends are hanging out. One 3 day fest does not make a long term consumer. Watch what they drink when they hang out away from the prying eyes of adults and mostly fruit/Red Bull mixed high alcohol drinks, unfortunately.

You may hate it, but I love living in FfM. Trouble with your idea is that there isn't enough demand for what I do outside the major metropolitan areas. Besides, then I'd miss out on Äppler!

Ok, if they're profitable and don't want to expand, great. But that's the dumbest long-term thinking for any business I've ever heard. Complacency breeds mediocrity. They need to replenish their supply of consumers continually. Look at what Brauerei Faust is doing. If they want to stay small and are profitable, that's great, but can they raise capital for maintaining production quality like this long term?

I agree with you. Generally, Germans tend to be risk adverse and crave more security than Americans. I get that. It would be weird if Germans became all can-do and super enthusiastic. Nonetheless, if you plan on your business surviving, you have to reach out to the younger consumers in media and messages that reaches their mindset. Yet again, it's a dumb long-term business strategy.

So no brewer wants to grow? If they want to stay micro or stay small, that's fine. Limiting production can be a good business strategy, yet it's long term a dumb one.

Here's where I'm afraid you're completely, utterly and hopelessly wrong and live in a myopic bubble. At BrauKunst Live!, guess which stands and which beers had the least people lined up to get their beers? It was the brewers who had only typical German styles and nothing else. They were lost. The buzz, the excitement, the mass of people waiting on lines to try their beers were the ones offering innovative products. This was Pax Bräu, Cambra Bavaria, and many others. So you're wrong. I estimated over 3000 were there on Saturday only, and I don't know what Sunday looked like. 95% were Germans. There is a huge hunger in this market for innovative beer, but it's mostly untapped. It requires education and time. It doesn't mean the traditional beers fall and die; rather, it's a complement or in addition to it.

 

Good.

But that's just not true. Where do you see beer customers dying off and not being replentished ? In the statistics of Fernsehbier conglomerates ? That's like Anheuser-Busch loosing a 1 % market share and then complaining that beer in the USA is on the decline.
And what's this talk about the war ? You must mean Poland or Belgium, right ?

I'm talking about the average general population, you are talking about a very selected specimen. Appels and Oranges.

You shouldn't draw conclusions from what you see in front of the FFM railway station on a friday night. Maybe you should visit one of those fests some time. There's one in and around Regensburg pretty much every weekend between April and October.

Yet you are the one who's constantly complaining about having no good breweries in walking distance and all the good stuff being hidden away in some Kaff. You can't have both. Quit whining

Again with the ethnocentric thinking. I understand this must all be very odd for an American, but can you grasp the concept that not everyone is thinking like you ? You are talking about breweries who have been family owned for generations and who have often been in operations since way before the American Civil War, surviving 2 World Wars and a lot of other stuff they probably do not teach about in schools outside Germany. How about THAT for long-term thinking ?

I could call it morbid curiosity and would be just as right, wouldn't I ? There is no "right" or "wrong" here and of course there are some people who are interested in something different and I'm happy for them that they can find it. Of course, when I bother going to something called "Braukust" and can have only a few samples I won't bother sampling what I already know, I go for something different. I'll be doing the very same at the "Fest der 100 Biere". But how representative for a population or even the drinking habits of the people you observed there is that really ?
On a side note and somewhat related to sampling, the wife and I had the first two bottles from "Tonybräu" last weekend. We both liked that Nutella beer quite a bit. Cheryl thought it was gross just based on the name but after I made her try it she was rather pleasantly surprised, as was I. It was far less sweet than I thought it would be. The second beer, the "Halb Dubbel" (btw, how does "half double" make any sense ? ) unfortunately was skunked unless you meant it to have this rather nasty biting aftertaste. I still drank it though. If you just keep drinking you only have the after taste once and while it ran down it was rather nice. I hope the other bottles I have will come without bite, I'll probably enjoy those even more

 

[quote="herrburgess, post: 1075845, member: 389328"The same thing is going on here in the U.S. craft scene: people flock to the "new and exciting," but rarely return, as there's always the next "newer and more exciting" beer to tick.[/quote]

Once again you over-generalize from a small sample and paint a picture with broad brush strokes that does not map into the reality of things outside of a very small segment of the people embracing craft beer in the US. We are not all 20 somethings flitting from pillar to post. Large numbers of people are perfectly content picking and choosing from products which are flagship beers of some brewery. Indeed, locally Victory has had to open a second brewing facility not far from their original. That is not because of the one-offs or their experimentation, but because the demand for their flagship has grown faster than they can keep up. All but one of their top selling beers has been in their line up for a decade or more. The newest to get into the top four is an APA, not exactly novel, eh?

 

Sounds like a successful long term business plan to me too

 

A couple of web-based/YouTube video advertisements with variations on this theme (all ending with "F*#k it, just give me an Olde Meck") would be interesting to see!

 

I'll knock out a few storyboards in the mean time.

 

Print shirts and use them in the videos.

 

There is a lot of good spirited discussion in this thread!

It seems to me that there are a number fundamental questions that need to be resolved:

· Is there a nationwide demand from the German beer consumers for quality, non-boring beers and is this a year round demand?
· Are the German beer consumers nationwide willing to pay more for higher quality beer?
· Do the German beer consumers nationwide desire a variety of quality beer?

If the answer is yes to the above questions then:

· Are there breweries in Germany that are willing to make these beers for the nationwide German beer consumers?
· Are there breweries willing to make the necessary commitment from a sales and marketing perspective to handle a nationwide market?

Needless to say but the breweries can tailor the sales of certain products per regional demand.

I am not an economist but my understanding is that in a market driven economy companies will produce products to service the demand. I am assuming that the economy in Germany is a market driven economy.

So, if the nationwide German beer consumers truly want quality, non-boring beer and are willing to pay for that quality then it is reasonable (based upon market driven economics) that some company (or companies) will step forward to service this demand. Let’s postulate a beer company called German Alps Brewing Company. They will produce high quality (and consequently more expensive) beers that they will sell and market nationwide. Maybe it would make sense for them to have a German centric portfolio of beer:

· Contemporary Pilsner
· Flavorful Pilsner: Pilsner (Herb)
· Helles (like Augustiner Helles)
· Hefeweizen
· Alt (like a Dusseldorf style Alt)
· Kolsch
· Schwarzbier
· Keller Bier
· Marzen (seasonal)
· Doppelbock (seasonal)
· Bock (seasonal)

Well, I am not a German (or Bavarian) beer consumer but I can tell you that if I could obtain fresh German Alps Brewing Company beers I would certainly buy them (and pay ‘extra’ for them).

I sure hope that some existing or new brewery decides to do something like I postulated for German Alps Brewing Company.

Prost!

 

^ Here's your problem.

There's a culture to the German beer consumer (IMO) that I think is difficult for the average American to understand. Variety here is not as prized as it is in America.

You seem to be a storyteller Jack, so permit me to tell you a story that I've shared here before...my wife works with a guy from Cologne. When I told him I was going to Düsseldorf, he had nothing but awful things to say about the beer. He showed me a picture of a horse drinking from a bucket labeled "Kölsch" with a strategically placed bucket placed further downhorse labeled "Alt". I got all kinds of grief from him. I brought back an Uerige to share with him and he made a huge production. "Someone call the ambulance just in case", "Someone get me some Kölsch anti-poison" and etc. He drank the Uerige and admitted that he liked it. Surprised, I asked him what was different about Uerige vs. the other alts that he liked this one so much. He said he didn't know, he's never had an Altbier before.

In my mind, this is the German beer consumer in a nutshell. His local specialty is awesome, your local specialty is terrible, and he's not about to start drinking anything else thank you very much.

I think a change of the mindset of the German consumer needs to happen before the German "new wave" ever becomes successful.

I think the German Alps Brewing Company could be a huge hit in America. I don't think it would do very well in Germany.

 

Also, I want to address this point separately, as I think it highlights another cultural difference.

The answer (IMO) is "no". And the reason is because there is little difference in price between a decent Macro like Radeberger, Paulaner, or whomever (sorry Stahl) and something a BA might consider "craft beer" like Weihenstephaner, Schneider Weisse, or Schlenkerla. I think Spaten Hell retails here for about €0,90 per 500ml bottle. Schlenkerla, at the same store, is either €1,00 or €1,05 for the same size bottle. So why do we need someone to come up with a €4,50 per bottle for a beer style that is unfamiliar to the German beer drinker? Again, IMO, we don't. We can already get great beer at a very reasonable price.

In America, you might spend extra money when the alternative is [Macro] Light. In Germany you don't have to, and if you want to go Macro, those aren't too bad either (sorry again Stahl).

 

Firstly, I very much liked your colorful story!

My read of your post is that you think the answer to my fundamental question of “Do the German beer consumers nationwide desire a variety of quality beer?” is no. If that is indeed true then the beer company that I postulated would have some ‘challenges’. I did state in my post: “Needless to say but the breweries can tailor the sales of certain products per regional demand.”

Let’s further explore your wife’s co-worker as a case study since it can be approached from various angles. You state: “He drank the Uerige and admitted that he liked it. Surprised, I asked him what was different about Uerige vs. the other alts that he liked this one so much. He said he didn't know, he's never had an Altbier before.” So, as it turns out he does indeed have a demand for a Dusseldorf Alt but he simply did not know about it. How could a beer company like German Alps Brewing Company deal with a fellow like him? Well, they could market their version of an Alt by providing free samples at beer stores? The fellow could practice all kinds of histrionics when being offered a free sample of German Alps Alt but after trying it he might say to himself: “why not buy a bottle while I am here, that Alt was tasty”?

Another way that German Alps Brewing Company could address this challenge is to simply state that Alts won’t sell in the Cologne region but we could sell our Kolsch, Contemporary Pilsner, Helles, and Hefeweizen there.

I will freely admit the following: I am not a German (or Bavarian), I am not an Economist, and I am not a German beer industry expert.

I am sure that others will chime in on why the German Alps Brewing Company as I postulated it would not be a ‘success’ but maybe they will come up with some clever ideas on how a beer company could succeed in providing quality, non-boring (and maybe a variety of them) beers to German beer consumers nationwide.

Prost!

 

“I think Spaten Hell retails here for about €0,90 per 500ml bottle. Schlenkerla, at the same store, is either €1,00 or €1,05 for the same size bottle. So why do we need someone to come up with a €4,50 per bottle for a beer style that is unfamiliar to the German beer drinker?”

I will be perfectly honest with you, I am not a German beer industry expert so I have no idea what prices German Alps Brewing Company would have to charge in order to be profitable. I assumed that a quality beer would need to be priced higher vs. a non-quality beer. The portfolio that I postulated for German Alps Brewing Company is German beers so permit be to make the following guesses:

· Contemporary Pilsner: Price comparable to Radeburger
· Flavorful Pilsner: Pilsner (Herb): Price more than a Radeburger
· Helles (like Augustiner Helles): Price like an Augustiner Helles
· Hefeweizen: Price like a Weihenstephaner
· Alt (like a Dusseldorf style Alt): Price like an Uerige
· Kolsch: Price like a Cologne brewed Kolsch
· Schwarzbier: Price like ?
· Keller Bier: Price like Mahr’s
· Marzen (seasonal): Price like a Munich brewed Marzen
· Doppelbock (seasonal): Price like Celebrator
· Bock (seasonal)” Price like ?

So, assuming that those above prices = profitability then it seems to me that the market is already there, albeit on a regional vs. nationwide basis.

Prost!

 

Scott, I would buy your beers!

Please provide bottled on dates!!

Prost!

 

No, you're adding one and one to get three here. He liked it, and he tried it because I brought it back for him, but as far as I know he has not bothered to buy another. In fact, fast-forward a year or so, and a new-ish member of the group was going to Düsseldorf and asked if I wanted anything, and sure enough our Kölsch friend started in with the anti-poison jokes again. He will never admit that Altbier is even good, let alone buy it.

 

"Another way that German Alps Brewing Company could address this challenge is to simply state that Alts won’t sell in the Cologne region but we could sell our Kolsch, Contemporary Pilsner, Helles, and Hefeweizen there."

There is more than one way to skin a rabbit!

Prost!