Wednesday 3 October 2007

German beer sales by type and state

I get worried about boring you when I bang on about something for too long. So just for a change today's topic is beer styles. Damn, that's been the subject of most of my posts recently. OK, maybe I am sticking with the same general theme, but I have switched country and period.

Germany has easily the most regional beer market in Europe. Take Pils, for example. In Niedersachsen and Bremen it makes up 75.5% of sales, in Bavaria just 25.8%. This is a good demonstration of the North/South divide. In the two southernmost states - Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg - far more Weizen and far less Pils is drunk than elsewhere. But there's also a difference between the former Western and Eastern parts of the country. In the East more Export and Schwarzbier are consumed and very little Weizen. In Nordrhein-Westfalen, the local styles Koelsch and Alt together account for nearly 20% of sales. Neighbouring Rheinland-Pfalz is the only other state where they get above 1% combined.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I didn't notice any Munich Dunkel on your chart. What % of the bavarian market does it hold?

Also, for wheat beers, any breakdown between pale, dark and strong?

Anonymous said...

I didn't notice any Munich Dunkel on your chart. What % of the bavarian market does it hold.

Ron Pattinson said...

Anonymous, that's a good question. There are two places Dunkles could be: in with Export or in "other styles". Given the very high figure for Export, it wouldn't surpise me if it were there.

I wouldn't call it Munich Dunkles, just Dunkles. The sweet Munich type of dark lager is just one sub-type. Many of the dark lagers made in Franconia are completely different - dry, hoppy and bitter.

Stonch said...

Ron, my favourite posts are those about your beer travels. Aside from those, I like the ones where you take your kids to beer cafes and knock back Belgian beer while they do colouring-in books. It always sounds so idyllic and civilised.

Ron Pattinson said...

Stonch, currently work is putting a serious dampener on my travelling. Though I will be going to Cologne this Saturday. There are still a couple of brewpubs I need to cross off. Hopefully, I can get Andrew to come with me and do the navigating.

Idyllic with the kids? Did you read my post about Alexei chewing a glass in a pub in Leiden?

Alan said...

I like graphs and tables. If you can work in pie charts that would be great, too.

Alan
AGBB

Ron Pattinson said...

Mmmm . . . pies. My kids love pies. I feel my work in passing on the essentials of British culture is done.

Alexei prefers steak and kidney, Andrew goes for beer and onion. Me, Iike meat and potato best. It reminds me of the pie and peas bar in Leeds University refectory. I used to eat meat and potato pie and mushy peas there every day. While I was busy not studying for my degree.

The kids were very impressed that pies were available at the Stadium of Shite when my brother dragged us to watch his pathetic Sunderland lose (the start of a record-breaking losing streak) to Charlton. High point of the day was Lexie cheering Charlton's winning goal.

So, yes, I'm all for pies.

Anonymous said...

It may have nothing to do with pies (or beer) but does it make me less cool that even though I'm an American who lives in Iowa I'm an Ipswich Town fan? Greene King sponsorship or not...

cheers,

Kevin

Stonch said...

Ron, our blogs always seem to pre-empt each other, albeit sometimes in small ways. You've just mentioned Sunderland, and I'm about to do a post about Vaux...

Ron Pattinson said...

Kevin, I think Ipswich Town is a perfectly appropriate team for someone in Iowa to support.

Anonymous said...

Ron,

I don't know exactly what that says about me, but I'm still laughing at your Stadium of Shite joke.


cheers,

Kevin