And here come the closures... Don't know if anyone in the US has ever heard of Scherdel brewery. It's a regional brewery in the city of Hof, a bit north of Bamberg and Bayreuth. Owned by Kulmbacher Group, it will close next year. https://www.diesachsen.de/en/economy/traditional-franconian-brewery-closes-3065439
They are not alone, another recent mid-size closure is Lang-Bräu, which ceased brewing earlier this year: https://www.infranken.de/lk/wunsied...hliessung-fans-tradition-abschied-art-6224104
Hof had been on my radar for years as a beer city I wanted to hit. Steve Thomas' great 2006 book "Good Beer Guide Germany" turned me on to Hof. It had 5 breweries in 2006. And then they began closing. Bürgerbräu in 2007. Falter in 2008. Zeltbräu in 2010. And now Scherdel in 2026. Only Meinel-Bräu will remain. I did finally make it to Hof...in the summer of 2024. Visited their summer volksfest, and drank some Scherdel. Anyways, Thomas' book has a related website. If you want to get depressed, take a look at the updates of brewery closures in Germany as reported by his site. Unfortunately, it appears that regular updates stopped in 2021. The link: http://www.german-breweries.com/closures.htm
Thought i'd had a "Scherdel" Beer before, but turns out that i didn't. They kinda got "Lost in the Sauce" for me among the Franconian Breweries and none of their Beers were particularly known or celebrated.
I didn't study it (are there crossovers?), but the New Breweries page looks like it could offset a little of the depression. http://www.german-breweries.com/new_breweries.htm
It is a nice website but very outdated. There are three new breweries in my county alone that are not listed there. All of them started in the last three years. But have no fear they are in BA now.
