German finanzen.net reported on December 23. Rising costs and sluggish consumption made breweries worry about the future. "One of the most difficult years in history is coming to an end for the German brewing industry," Holger Eichele, chief executive of the German Brewers' Association, told Reuters on Friday. The financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic is still being felt, and the energy price crisis has hit the industry across the board. Given these burdens, it is unclear what prospects the brewery has in the new year. "Companies are very concerned about further price increases and energy supply bottlenecks," Eichele said, “ more companies are in trouble”.

On the one hand, beer and other beverages are becoming more expensive to produce because of high energy prices and inflation. On the other hand, consumers are increasingly holding back their consumption. From January to the end of October 2022, 74.2 million hectolitres of beer were sold, 2.8% higher than the same period in 2021. But it is still below pre-crisis levels of around 78.5 million hectolitres in 2019. "It shows that the German beer market has lost a lot of sales because of the crisis," said Eichele.

However, the industry sees a silver lining: the statistics do not include alcohol-free beer, which has performed surprisingly well in the years of the pandemic. Production of non-alcoholic beer in Germany has more than doubled since 2007, reaching 680 million litres by 2021. "Soon, 1 in 10 beers brewed in Germany will be alcohol-free," says Eichele. "German brewers lead the world in producing high-quality alcohol-free beers."