The Fiege brewery in the western German city of Bochum has a problem. Although business is booming in this hot World Cup summer, it's struggling to find enough bottles to put its beer in. So Fiege has launched an urgent appeal to consumers via Facebook.
"We need your help," the brewery wrote. "Although we regularly buy new empty bottles, they're becoming scarce in our bottling facility. So before you go on summer holidays, please bring your Moritz Fiege empties back to the shop. First the deposit, then the party!"
The summer heat has Germans hitting beer gardens — and beer sales going through the roof
Reusable beer bottles carry a deposit of eight to fifteen cents ($.09-0.18) in Germany, but that's not always enough to motivate people to lug empties back to stores when the mercury rises and they could be, among other things, drinking beer.
The problem is especially acute for independent, regional, family-run breweries like Fiege. A brewery spokesperson told Deutsche Welle that whereas Fiege normally bottles 100,000 to 120,000 beers a day, this summer that figure is up to 150,000 to 160,000. Fiege isn't alone in having this problem, which comes hot on the heels of a shortage of carbon dioxide.
"This issue is dramatic through the industry," the publisher of a leading German drinks industry magazine told dpa news agency. The German Brewers Association also says that the scarcity of containers is "especially pronounced" this summer.
And complicating the situation is the nature of beer packaging in Germany, which is a science unto itself.
Beer bottles come in a wide range of shapes and sizes
2 billion in circulation, but not always the right shape
There are an estimated two billion reusable beer bottles in circulation among Germany's 82.6 million people, with the containers being refilled on average 36 times. That may sound like enough to meet demand, but not every brewery uses the same sort of bottle.
Bottles in Germany vary from dumpies (also called "steinies") to Vichies to longnecks. Some breweries "personalize" bottles by having their names embossed on the glass. And there are both "Euro" and "NRW" 500 ml bottles, the latter named after Germany's most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia, where Fiege is located.
'Plop-top' bottles require extra care and attention to reuse
But Fiege uses a bottle with a swing top and porcelain cork. When opened, the cork produces a characteristic "plop" sound so satisfying to many a beer lover, but the bottle is more expensive to keep in circulation and can only be refilled 30 times.
Cans, widely used in the US and the UK, are rightly or wrongly looked down upon for being "unsexy" and environmentally unfriendly. In Germany, it's mostly glass or nothing.
But breweries can't just call up bottlemakers and order more new ones. Glass bottles are produced seasonally, the Fiege spokesperson says, and orders have to be placed a year in advance, with breweries having no way of knowing what the next summer's weather, and hence consumption, will be like.
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It's not spring without a beer garden
Munich's largest
With 100, Munich boasts the largest concentration of beer gardens in Germany. The largest in the Bavarian capital is Hirschgarten, which seats 8,000. Traditionally, guests bring their own food and only order beer - a practice that has been maintained over the years. But for those whose hunger is bigger than what they brought, snacks like soft pretzels and local cheese can be purchased.
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It's not spring without a beer garden
First official beer garden
In 1812, Bavaria's King Maximilian I ruled that beer gardens could be set up in Munich for the first time. The garden near the Augustinerkeller, shaded by over 100 chestnut trees, is considered the oldest. Here, beer is served from wooden kegs right in front of the guests. Whenever a fresh keg is tapped, a traditional bell-ringing ritual is celebrated.
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It's not spring without a beer garden
Chinese Tower
One of Bavaria's most famous beer gardens has a Chinese flair. Located in the English Garden, there is room for 7,000 beer drinkers at the Chinese Tower, making it the second-largest beer garden in the city. Here, tourists and locals like raise their one-liter glasses in a multicultural atmosphere.
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It's not spring without a beer garden
Beer garden 'revolution'
Bavarians take their beer gardens very seriously. In 1995, residents living near the Waldwirtschaft tavern in Grosshesselohe, which has a large beer garden, demanded an earlier closing time. That upset Bavaria's then Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber so much that a law was changed. Now beer lovers can enjoy their brew under the trees until 11:00 pm.
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It's not spring without a beer garden
Holy brew
When in Munich, many tourists make a point of traveling out to Andechs Abbey to sample the famous monastic brew. Legend has it the beverage comes from the depths of the "holy mountain" on which the monastery is located. The Benedictine monks in Andechs Abbey continue to run the brewery. The order maintains another five breweries throughout Germany.
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It's not spring without a beer garden
World's oldest abbey beer
A beer garden above the cellar can still be found at Weltenburg Abbey. The Weltenburger Abbey brew is pumped via a pipeline from the fermentation cellar in the cliff to the tap, where it is served in the beer garden located in the inner courtyard of the abbey complex. Beer has been brewed in this unique location on the Danube Gorge in the heart of a nature reserve since 1050.
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It's not spring without a beer garden
Beyond Bavaria
The beer garden may be a Bavarian invention, but other cities in Germany have adopted it and adapted it to their local brewing culture. In Cologne, the local brew, known as "Kölsch," has been served in Hellers Volksgarten since 1891. Back then, the outdoor tavern, located on a small lake in the middle of the park, was a favorite meeting place for Cologne residents.
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It's not spring without a beer garden
Theater with your beer
In 1837, Berlin opened its first beer garden in the Prater. The German capital gave the Bavarian tradition an urban flair, adding theater and vaudeville performances to the menu. Today, the Prater beer garden seats 600 guests in summer, offering them a cool oasis under tall chestnut trees in the middle of the bustling city.
Author: Frederike Müller
Read more: Competition brewing in Germany as consumers tire of traditional beer
'Help is on the way'
Although the supply of beer bottles is particularly tight this summer, this is by no means the first time shortages have been felt in Germany. In the summer of 2012, for instance, Munich's famous Hofbräu sold full bottles of beer only to people who brought back empty ones.
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Beer culture - this is how Germany drinks
Spoilt for choice
Germany is a beer country - and that's a fact. Using only four ingredients German brewers have managed to create over 5,500 brands of beer. And that number is growing because every week a new beer is released on the market. But Germany manages quantity as well as quality: no other European country produces more beer.
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Beer culture - this is how Germany drinks
You can always have a beer
When it comes to drinking alcohol, whether at an office party, during intermission at the theater or just relaxing as pictured here in Berlin's Görlitzer Park, beer is always an appropriate choice in Germany, and can be consumed legally in public.
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Beer culture - this is how Germany drinks
Traditional festivals are a must
Funfair stalls, brass bands and "Schlager" music are the ingredients of a traditional German festival. A challenge to get through unless you consume plenty of beer. For these occasions regional breweries often create a festival beer. The best known of these is probably the Oktoberfest beer, which is made especially for the festival in Munich and served in one liter Bavarian beer mugs.
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Beer culture - this is how Germany drinks
Football and beer - a winning combination
Football is also a celebration, and beer goes with football the way mustard goes with a bratwurst sausage. It helps fans celebrate and consoles them if their team loses. At any stadium the link between football teams and breweries is obvious: beer advertising features on the players' shirts and banners. And in many Bundesliga football arenas the beer brand sponsoring the team is also served.
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Beer culture - this is how Germany drinks
Beer can be bought round the clock
In the Ruhr area it's known as a Trinkhalle, in Mainz it is called a Büdchen and in Berlin it goes by the name of Späti. These neighborhood kiosks sell newspapers, tobacco, sweets, and usually beer. What began more than 150 years ago as a place to sell water, now serves as a pit stop for big city beer drinkers.
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Beer culture - this is how Germany drinks
The corner pub - a temple of German beer
Berlin's corner pubs, like the Willi Mangler in the Schönefeld district, are a part of German beer history. They have also become something of a cult. The mix of stuffy air, no nonsense food and a crowd of regular bar flies is what makes them so charming. Tourists rarely venture here, but residents of the neighborhood come to enjoy their after work beer.
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Beer culture - this is how Germany drinks
Beer gardens - fun in the sun
Beer gardens are also traditional to German beer culture. These days they can be found all over Germany, but they originate from the beginning of the 19th century in Bavaria. Back then brewers served their beer straight from the cooling cellars along the banks of the river Isar. Especially on hot days the cellar beer gardens were popular among people from Munich.
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Beer culture - this is how Germany drinks
Bavaria - cradle of the Beer Purity Law
In Bavaria, where the German Beer Purity Law was adopted in 1516, beer has been an established part of life for centuries. Today, Bavaria has more than 600 breweries, more than in any other state in Germany. In the Middle Ages the breweries were firmly in the grip of monasteries. Some of these still exist, the oldest being Weltenburg Abbey on the Danube.
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Beer culture - this is how Germany drinks
Craft beer - modern brewing techniques
Traditional breweries have now been joined by more experimental beer makers like Georg-Augustin Schmidt. His micro-brewery "Braustil" in Frankfurt-am-Main produces small amounts of new varieties which have powerful aromas and are usually made with regional, organic ingredients. The craft-beer scene is especially strong in Hamburg and Berlin.
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Beer culture - this is how Germany drinks
How it's done - beer brewing seminars
Those who are crazy about beer beyond drinking it will find more than 30 beer museums, beer hikes and beer brewing seminars in Germany. You can create your own beer at the "Grillakademie" craft beer seminar in Bochum. Participants also learn about the different varieties of beer as well as German brewing traditions and, of course, the German Beer Purity Law.
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Beer culture - this is how Germany drinks
Once in the right glass: Cheers!
To mark German Beer Day on April 23, here's a quick guide. From left to right: the Berliner Weisse goes in a bowl-shaped glass, Kristallweizen wheat beer in a tall glass, lager is served in a beer mug, followed by a short glass for the dark Altbier, the small, narrow glass for the Cologne Kölsch brew, the rounded glass for Pils beer and finally the Bavarian half-liter beer mug.
Author: Christina Deicke/sc/nr
The smaller the brewer, the more acute the problem can be. Some craft breweries don't charge deposit for bottles at all because they have no capacity to store empties if they were returned. Instead customers are encouraged to put bottles in recycling bins or take them back to beverage shops.
Massive corporate breweries like Warsteiner and Beck's have the leverage and capacities to avoid bottle shortage problems. But size-wise Fiege is in the middle of these two poles and has had to be creative.
The brewery says the response to its Facebook call for empties has been "overwhelming," with fans of the beer bringing in carloads of bottles and beer crates. One woman even wrote in from Guatemala to say that she had a bottle. And several users responded with pictures of returnables and pledges that help is on the way.
If nothing else, for Fiege, the beer bottle crisis of summer 2018 has turned out to be pretty good publicity.
