Germans are apparently not as much in love with beer as they used to be, with consumption falling 2.5% last year, to a ‘mere’ 8.52 billion litres. And the trend is likely to continue, driven by demographics and price.
The drop is especially sharp for draft beer, sold from the tap in bars, restaurants and catering halls. Always priced a bit above canned and bottled, it is now seeing a wave of price increases for kegs sold to the trade, while only a few producers of canned beer are raising prices.
And the demographics are kicking in. As in most of Europe, a gray wave of older people is outpacing the younger population, and those older folks are not drinking as much beer per capita as the young.
