German beer market

Thank you, I find this really interesting.

I had momentarily forgotten that something like Rothaus would be more appropriate for them than Bitburger. I suppose its main consumer base would be further down the Rhine, where the brewery actually is!

 

Now I'm confused.

If you're talking about Bitburger, It is in the city of Bitburg, in the Rhineland-Palatinate. It is not on the Rhein.

Edit Bitburg is maybe 60 km as the crow flies from Koblenz.

 

I was trying to be figurative, speaking in the general direction the river flows, not that the brewery is on the Rhine. I thought in my first post that Bitburg was further south than it actually is. I guess I still wasn’t being clear.

 

OK. Most don't know the Rhein flows generally to the North, Alps to Rotterdam.

Bitburger has a strong presence in a good chunk of Hesse, but that is wine country, not too many breweries there.

 

And that is where we find the confusion with the Bundesland of Lower Saxony!

 

Rothaus is actually a very good brewery, in my opinion, they are quite small, with a limited range of offerings, but everything at a high level of quality (again: my opinion).
Bitburger is indeed a little further north, and also one of the "Fernsehbiers", which means: big national brands.

 

if it makes anyone feel any better over there, I'm seeing much of the same thing in the "craft" industry here: bottle shops and craft beer bars closing; declining share (as more and more places come online); and a trend by local distributors (esp AB InBev ones) toward pushing the least offensive/least interesting offerings to as many people as possible (mass appeal = higher volumes...and thus, margins?).

also I know for a fact that these big distributors are incentivising selling such brands -- as well as new stuff like hard Seltzers -- among their reps. and those reps (who are craft beer fans too) are stepping up and running with it....

some seismic stuff afoot it feels like. at least among the folks I talk to/deal with in the industry.

 

I wonder whether there is a lot of value comparing the craft beer market in the US with the craft beer market in Germany.

As one point of example the number of craft beer breweries is increasing at a tremendous rate. At the moment there is well over 7,000 craft breweries in the US and very soon the number will exceed 8,000. As regards selling beer for consumers to take home and drink, more and more (and more) beer consumers are purchasing there craft beer directly from the small, local craft breweries (in the past growlers then crowlers and now more popularly in cans). If some bottle shops close this is not affecting to ability of craft beer consumers to purchase canned beers to bring home and drink.

I have more beer available for sale from small, local craft breweries than I have money and time to purchase/consume. It is a very rapidly changing craft beer scene in the US (at least in my immediate area).

Cheers!

 

Speaking of Stone it was interesting to see Stone Go To IPA (brewed at the Berlin brewery by, at this point I guess, BrewDog) launched this summer as a year round product at the Swedish monopoly at 13.90kr for 33cl, which is far below the standard price for Swedish craft beer at around 20kr or up for 33cl (that's for the largest craft breweries, among the smaller breweries the standard price is more like 24-30kr per 33cl). This fall they raised the price by one crown so now it's 14.90kr. Still it's significantly cheaper than average (there have been a few other releases at a lower price point, but since alcohol taxation is punitive here those brands tend to be lower abv beers at around 5%). 14.90kr, or 15kr, is about 1.42 Euro, so the liter price becomes about 4.28 Euro, and a theoretical six pack would cost 8.52 Euro (there's no volume discount and all beers are sold as singles). This is despite our taxes being as high as they are even for moderate abv beers, and the producer, importer and monopoly getting their cut on top of the taxes. If the same beer was sold in Germany I would have to imagine that they could shave some cents off that price with its significantly lower taxes (taxation is of course based on the OG rather than abv in Germany, but the effect is the same), so I see no reason why they couldn't sell beers of higher gravities/abvs for similar prices. I also took note of Koch noting in the thread that Go To IPA was an expensive beer to brew, though there's no ruling out recipe differences between the US and European version.

Of course there's often a difference between what could be done and what a brewery wants to do (Koch made it clear that he is not looking to be a value brand in craft, yet ironically here Go To IPA is a value thanks to the relative price difference), but I still find it interesting. One thing which I have wondered about is how the pricing of craft in Europe impacts how it is sold, how much craft beer is actually sold in six packs, or twelve packs (in markets where this is/could be done, here it's all singles as I mentioned). The pricing strategies of alot of breweries here seem similar to the wine industry where they price it for purchase as singles, that must impact the velocity of sales I imagine, with people picking up single bottles rather than sixpacks or twelve packs. I imagine that six packs and twelve packs at least make up a significantly larger portion of the package mix in the US for craft compared with in various European markets.

Here are a few examples of prices for well known imports for comparison:
Budweiser: 13.90kr (33cl)
Pabst Blue Ribbon: 14.90kr (35.5cl)
Corona Extra: 18.40kr (33cl)

 

Late edit: Corona Extra is apparently 35.5cl.

 

I'm not sure how they managed it, but they've got nation-wide distribution and are prominently displayed in all supermarkets shelves on the top or middle shelves, save the discounters such as Aldi & Lidl.

 

I was there and drank my share to help boost the numbers!

 

Prices from this summer left is single price, right is crate price for 20

 

I miss those days. Heidelberg only had the Weihenstephaner Hefe-Weissbier Hell, no other varieties, but it was around 0,75 Euro a bottle as shown here.

 

Almost everything is .60 - 1.10. A crate of Schneider would be $80+ in the US....

My friends there pine for Ami gas prices....

I don't mind paying for bier, even at a 400% mark-up, I just wish I had access to it.

 

I don't know...every time I see Chimay at $21 per 4 pack of 330 ml bottles...or Uerige at whatever ridiculous price they'll put on it for year old beer...or Andechs for $5 a bottle...I miss the days of living in Germany.

 

I wonder what sort of changes are prompting this decline, because it seems very significant. Cultural shifts? Demographic changes?

I find it difficult to suppose that it has anything to do with competition - thankfully it seems that that monstrosity of Spiked Seltzer hasn't come to Europe yet, and anyway, most drinkers seeking that sort of flavor are already satisfied with Radler. Unlike in the states, hard liquor doesn't seem to be too popular within German or Austrian culture unless as an aperitif or digestif, and wine is a regional phenomenon. Yet, we see that this is an international issue both sides of the Atlantic...

 

Living in a country with a low per capita consumption of beer, Sweden, I have to imagine that the difference between us and countries such as Germany and Austria etc. comes down to frequency of consumption, where there are more occasions to drink, and where this is seen as a normal thing to partake in. If consumption is decreasing I guess this likely means that the frequency of drinking is decreasing for some groups of consumers. There's only so much drinking that regular people can fit into a weekend (the type of drinking that is common in Sweden). Older people might be slowing down their drinking as they get older, and younger people aren't picking up the slack like they used to a generation or two ago, perhaps because of there being more and different leisure activities for the generations now growing up, activites which compete for people's time and money (while still finding time for weekend parties and nights out).