Bethany Bell<\/span>BBC News in Bavaria<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Germans are drinking less and less beer, but non-alcoholic varieties are more popular than ever.<\/p>\n Germany’s Destatis federal statistics office says non-alcoholic sales have more than doubled in recent years – up 109% since 2013 – even though beer sales more broadly are at their lowest level in more than 30 years.<\/p>\n For the first time, they have fallen below 4bn litres in a half-year period. <\/p>\n German beer sales slumped by 6.3% – or 262 million litres – to around 3.9bn litres in the first half of 2025, compared with the same period last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Erdinger brewery near Munich has been making beer since the 1880s, and its chief executive, Stefan Kreisz, says drinking habits are changing and these days about a quarter of their production is non-alcoholic.<\/p>\n “We need to find a way to make beer, even if it’s non-alcoholic, attractive for young people. <\/p>\n “You need to understand the ways they meet and the ways they party together. There’s no algorithm which tells you you need a beer now.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Stefan Kreisz still sees the culture of German beer as resilient, and nowadays his company promotes its alcohol-free beer at sporting events, as a natural alternative to energy drinks.<\/p>\n At the Caf\u00e9 Kosmos in Munich, barman Louis von Tucher says many of his customers are more health aware.<\/p>\n “In the 2000s, I remember people being put off if you told them maybe you should have a glass of water\u2026 and they would be really offended.”<\/p>\n Now, however, he has detected a change.<\/p>\n “Everybody is a little bit more conscious about their consumption. I think most people still drink alcohol, but they do it more consciously and have alcohol-free beverages in between.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n However Louis says full-strength beer is not going away.<\/p>\n “It’s a slight shift, he said, I guess we sell 150 to 500 litres of normal beer at night, compared to maybe 20 litres of alcohol-free beer. So there’s still a huge gap between those two.”<\/p>\n At the Sandkerwa folk festival in the town of Bamberg in northern Bavaria, the tradition of drinking alcoholic beer in Germany appears alive and well. <\/p>\n During the five-day long celebration, Bamberg’s winding, medieval streets are filled with musicians, sausage stands and countless beer stalls doing a roaring trade.<\/p>\n In the Sandstrasse in the old town, Pascal was having a beer with a friend.<\/p>\n “Beer is very important for the city and we have a lot of breweries here,” he said. <\/p>\n “People come here for the beer and for the fest. I can’t imagine that consumption of beer here in Bamberg is really less than before.”<\/p>\n Standing outside a beer garden, Magdalena, a student, agreed.<\/p>\n “I’m looking around, and everybody has a glass of beer in their hand. So I guess, especially in this part of Germany, beer is just a massive part of daily life, even though it’s not healthy. We all know that,” she said.<\/p>\n “I feel like, especially in my generation, people tend to drink less on a daily basis, but it’s still Germany, it’s still Bavaria.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"BBC](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/c05d\/live\/f4caa4b0-84ba-11f0-85ca-c5c26b7f555d.jpg.webp\")
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