Founded over 600 years ago in central Germany, the Einbecker Brewery has survived fires, famines, two major plagues and four catastrophic wars, kept alive by constant demand for its robust, bock-style lagers. Now it faces what may be its greatest threat: Germans are drinking a lot less beer.
“In recent years it was always 46 percent, 47 percent, 48 percent who said, ‘Yes, I drink beer,’” said Marc Kerger, president of Einbecker, referring to consumer surveys. “And this year just 41 percent. Forty-one percent is dramatic.”
Alcohol consumption in Germany has been sliding for decades. But the sudden, accelerating drop has caught brewers and bar owners by surprise. Out of approximately 1,500 breweries in Germany, more than 50 have closed in the past year.
“Every week I get at least one call offering to sell us a brewery,” said Mr. Kerger, a veteran industry executive who was hired two years ago to save Einbecker from a similar fate.
Like in the United States and elsewhere, Germans are increasingly health-conscious, said Holger Eichele, president of the German Brewers Association.
“Young people use alcohol much more consciously and sensibly than our generation,” he said. “That is good news for health.”
Germany’s drinking culture is changing as well. It used to be common to drink a few beers on the job or to gather with friends at a bar after work. Socializing around a case or two of pilsner after a soccer game was expected.
That has become rarer. Germans go out less because of higher costs of living and the allure of online life at home. Sobriety is the norm. Asking for soda, juice or tea at a bar, once a faux pas, is now acceptable.
“I know a lot of people that don’t drink a lot or just drink one beer because it tastes good,” said Roxana Seehof, 25, an art student in the Baltic seaport of Kiel. “And that’s fine for the evening.”
Nonalcoholic alternatives are also finding space — this year, for the first time, every tent at Oktoberfest in Munich offered nonalcoholic beer as an option.
Consumer behavior is only part of the issue. Inflation, for example in fuel costs, also hurts brewers, who operate on razor-thin margins.
“You can buy a case of beer for 12 bucks,” said Oliver Lemke, who founded Lemke, a brewpub in central Berlin, in 1999. “Nobody’s making money on it. Not the brewer, not the retailer.”
Mr. Lemke’s brewery produces a mix of classic German beers, like pilsner and helles, as well as American favorites, like I.P.A. and stout, most of which he sells at his four restaurants in Berlin. His business is small but better off than most, thanks to a base of local regulars and a steady stream of tourists.
At the other end of the scale, giants like Oettinger, Bitburger and Paulaner are doing fine, too, thanks to diverse portfolios that include soda, fruit drinks, water and, increasingly, nonalcoholic beer.
“Half of our sales in Germany are actually non-beer,” said Jörg Biebernick, the chief executive of Paulaner.
The company, which sponsors a giant tent at Oktoberfest every year, has been especially successful with Spezi, a mix of orange soda and cola that has skyrocketed in popularity.
Sales of its nonalcoholic wheat beer sputtered for decades, but have also now taken off.
But in the vast middle of the German beer industry, longstanding breweries like Einbecker are hurting.
“We’re too big to be small and flexible,” Mr. Kerger said, “And we’re also too small to play with the big players.”
While Einbecker makes a line of cheap beer — “a student beer,” Mr. Kerger joked — most of its products are more expensive than the typical pilsner.
So, along with a comprehensive packaging redesign, part of Mr. Kerger’s strategy has been to lean into Einbecker’s craft status.
Among his innovations is Barrel Bock, an annual, limited-release beer aged in former bourbon barrels, which enriches the flavor and lifts the alcohol content to 9.1 percent. A half-liter bottle costs about $11, around five times a regular bottle of Einbecker.
Despite the price, Barrel Bock has been a success, Mr. Kerger said. But each new product is a struggle.
The real issue, he said, is that breweries like Einbecker are especially beholden to tradition. It also sells most of its beer regionally, to customers whose families have been drinking Einbecker for generations. They don’t like change.
When Mr. Kerger decided that Einbecker should make its own nonalcoholic beer, called Null Bock — which means “Zero Bock” but is also a play on a German slang meaning “No Desire” — he had to fight for almost a year to get everyone onboard.
“I really had to say with the employees that we have to do this now,” he noted. “I said, ‘Let’s have a small amount first and see how it works.’”
To their surprise, Null Bock took off. Now Mr. Kerger says that he would like Einbecker to be making half its revenue from nonalcoholic products within five years.
“Beer is no longer the future,” he said.
Clay Risen is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk.
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