Hi, I recently came across an article mentioning that in Germany there are exactly 3 big breweries owned not by private means, but by the government (which looks to me to be state governments, not the federal/national government). However, the article did not list which those 3 are. Doing a quick Google search of “state owned German breweries” does not yield a list either of what these three are. So, does anyone know whether this article’s assertion is correct, that there are exactly 3? And if so, then what those three are? Doing some independent digging, I believe that Rothaus (“Badische Staatsbrauerei Rothaus” officially, owned by the state government of Baden-Württemberg) and Hofbräu (“Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München” officially, owned by the state government of Bavaria) are 2 of the 3…
To my knowledge, there are indeed only three German breweries that are 100% owned and operated by state governements and those are Hofbräu, Weihenstephan (Bavaria) and Rothaus (Baden-Württemberg).
Ok, interesting. I’m assuming that had I done my search in German, I would have got a concise list. Seeing as it’s your native tongue, I’m gonna take your word as confirmation of the article’s assertion.
There are many small breweries owned by a town or village -- various Kommunbrauerein and Stadtbrauerei Spalt come to mind off the top of my head.
Exactly. It is more common in southern Germany, but nothing unusual here. But beside the "big" three (Weihenstephan, Hofbräu and Rothaus) Spalter is (as far as I know) the only public-owned brewery producing beer on a larger scale. All other are small "Kommunbräuhäuser" which mostly don't have a bottling-line...
They'd never do this in the UK, it would be just unheard of. I quite like the idea and the three breweries mentioned all brew excellent beer. If they did start to do this in the UK, I'd imagine the beer would taste worse than Marston's beer, given the current state of the government over here!
It was done. The entire brewing and pub trade in the city of Carlisle was nationalised during the First World War. It was only meant to last until the end of the war, but somehow dragged on until the 1970s. By all accounts the beer was decent and the system worked satisfactorily and made a profit for the state.
It had the snazzy name “Carlisle State Management Scheme”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Management_Scheme
"The scheme was privatised by Edward Heath's Conservative Government in 1971 and its assets were sold at auction in six lots, mostly to established brewing interests." Bloody Tories ... !!
