"That's the nightmare": Brewers throw away beer for millions of euros

"This is the nightmare"
Brewers throw away beer for millions of euros

Beer is not served during the months of pubs and bars being closed. The stored barrels are reaching their best-before date more and more frequently. The breweries have no choice but to destroy the beer. This hits the carnival strongholds particularly hard.

Pour beer down the drain. This bitter hour draws closer with each subsequent day of the repeatedly extended lockdown for many brewers, beverage traders and restaurateurs in Germany. Because the time bomb of the best-before date is ticking relentlessly on the stored beer barrels. "This is the nightmare," says the boss of the Düsseldorf brewery "Füchschen", Peter König. He will have to dispose of around 2000 to 3000 liters of old beer that was bottled in October. "That hurts," says König. It is difficult for him to be in business, to endure the quiet.

Especially brewers who are geared towards serving and celebrations would have to destroy beer on a large scale, says the chief executive of the German Brewers' Association, Holger Eichele. Millions of dollars are dumped into the gully, he says. Because pubs and restaurants are closed and no major events can take place, the lights are off in the draft beer bottlings of the breweries. And it gets even bigger: Wholesalers bring draft beer back to the brewery to be destroyed. "This is currently taking place all over Germany," says the editor of the industry magazine "Inside", Niklas Other.

Bitter hours for brewers, not just in this country. In Great Britain, almost 50 million liters of draft beer have to be destroyed because the pubs are closed, as the British Beer and Pub Association calculated according to the BBC. There, too, the best-before date triggers the return transport to the brewery and disposal. For many beers in the UK, this is the case three to four months after delivery, and for ales and some other beers even six to nine weeks. According to the report, the larger part was destroyed in the first lockdown in spring, the smaller in the winter lockdown.

The shelf life and the duration of the lockdown are factors that also play a role in Germany. According to the Brewers' Association, it is not possible to precisely estimate how large the amount destroyed is. "Not all of the beer that was returned so far had to be destroyed," says Eichele. Industry expert Other explains that brewers, wholesalers and landlords were cautious before the second lockdown from November. "By the hoped-for end of the lockdown in spring, it will still be a few hundred thousand hectoliters in Germany."

Second lockdown particularly hard

In Germany, however, the second lockdown seems to be the bigger problem due to its longer duration. More and more products in catering-specific containers such as draft beer exceeded the best-before date in the warehouses and would therefore not be for sale, says Dirk Reinsberg, member of the board of directors of the Federal Association of German Beverage Wholesalers. The damage to wholesalers is increasing day by day. The quantities with the best before date February / March are currently "on fire". Should the lockdown continue, supplies would be added.

According to customs, the returns to the breweries have not yet made themselves felt in the beer tax. According to the data, the total amount of beer returned to the tax warehouses of brewers and wholesalers did not increase in 2020. 72 million hectoliters of taxed beer was offset by 0.95 million hectoliters of so-called reverse beer. This corresponds to a share of 1.3 percent. In the previous year it was 1.15 million hectoliters or 1.5 percent back beer.

"The numbers show that nothing has changed significantly," says Florian Richter, spokesman for the General Customs Directorate. Conclusions as to whether the beer was withdrawn due to the lockdown and whether it was bottled or draft beer are not possible. Breweries have to pay beer tax. If beer is destroyed, they can claim this tax back.

"There was also a learning effect"

According to its own statements, the Veltins brewery did not have to destroy almost any beer in the first, shorter lockdown. Now the company is assuming that it will be a few thousand liters. With the extensions, the second lockdown simply turned the tap off restaurateurs. Industry-wide, many thousands of barrels of beer from the catering trade would be brought back to the breweries half full, almost full or almost empty on a previously unknown scale. "However, there was already a certain learning effect. The beverage wholesalers and restaurateurs haven't stashed as much beer in the warehouse or in the basement for a long time as was the case with the first lockdown," says Managing Director Volker Kuhl.

The Cologne Brewery Association also reports that the industry has learned from the first lockdown and has calculated sales volumes more carefully. "The problem is the uncertainty how long it will take," says managing director Christian Kerner. A timetable and a clear perspective would be very important for both brewers and restaurateurs. It is particularly bitter that the lockdown hits the months with the highest turnover for Kölsch. "Carnival as a factor, especially now in January and February, is completely eliminated. That is enormous," says Kerner.

.