Beer Nation Germany alcohol-free

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Once with stupid sayings care, is alcohol-free beer has long been Standard on the drinks menu. And not only that: It is becoming more and more popular. Sober the Germans from?

My first beer was a bitter experience. This barley cold drink not be tasted. The bitters made it to me, then 16, impossible, to make the favourite drink of the German my. So it panschten my Friends and I with lemonade and Cola. The mixing ratio has been generous over the years in favor of the beer until I had accepted after a long period of acclimatization the pure taste for me.

Grew up in the 1990s, we had not heard of puffy Chia seeds, even green Smoothies or Tofu cutlets. A healthy way of life sound for us to buzzkill, Fitness as a waste of time. During my high school and study time, I can’t remember a single one of my friends or me ordered alcohol-free beer. The bottles with the “alcohol-free”lettering, I discovered more than once at family gatherings, when the abstinent uncle was invited.

Summer, sun, beer: more and more Germans are opting for alcohol-free versions

Since then, both in terms of taste as well as society has turned the beer world. Non-alcoholic beer nowadays belongs to the Standard of the drinks card, sometimes several varieties such as Pilsner, Kölsch or wheat are even to choose from. As a matter of course I order it today in the beer garden on a hot summer day, not to get off at the me of the alcohol head to, an alcohol-free, without the cynical comment out of the circle of friends. This Trend is also confirmed by figures sales: the sales of non-alcoholic varieties was, according to the German brewers ‘ Association in may of this year to 6.5 percent over the same period last year.

What is wrong with the Germans?

The drink is part of the triad of the prejudices with which I was welcomed as a German so far to travel: Rammstein, Bratwurst, beer! From China the oldest recorded beer recipe, and Mexico is beer-an export champion – but Germany has the Reinheitsgebot. This purist food law of 1516, which makes us as a beer-Nation, world, and says that the drink is only be brewed from four ingredients: water, hops, malt and yeast.

In the Trend: beer without alcohol. Sales figures increased in comparison to the previous year, to 6.7 percent

Now, this art of brewing is a fermentation process in which, inevitably, alcohol is produced. As well a alcohol-free beer is a real beer? Therefore have taken care of the German master brewer for many years, and two elaborate methods developed: Either the Ethanol is removed afterwards. Or, the brewing process is finished in the Moment when the allowed Mini-alcohol content of 0.5 percent is reached. Because even in alcohol-free beer is still alcohol. However, in such a small amount that you have, according to the Brauer-Bund”, no physiological effects on the human body.”

Initially it was just a handful of Breweries, offering an alcohol-free variety, mix with as all. Because in addition to the rising sales figures for beer without the noise, there are a number that bring the Breweries to rethink: The Germans drink every year and less beer. It was in 1970, according to the Online Portal “Statista” is still around 140 annual litres per capita, decreased the consumption in 2018 to less than 100 litres. “The beer, the alcohol is free, the only variety that sets each year for the past ten years, what of it,” explains Marcus Strobl from the market research Institute Nielsen.

A new flavor brought

From Nüchtert Germany slowly? With just six percent of the beer market share is certainly not. The upward trend on the so far low level, a change of image is based on especially. In the 1970s, the first varieties came in as an emergency drink for motorists on the market. The brand “Bitburger Drive” is named accordingly. As of 2010, more alcohol advertise-free Beers in order to be isotonic as a sports drink. “Something I drink when I am active and vitamins and minerals need”, says Marcus Strobl. About five years later, the alcohol were free cyclists and nature of cyclists.

“Alcohol-free beer more and more of a soft drink is. Today, it is a bit like a tart replacement for soda or juice. The occasions to drink alcohol-free beer, have steadily been expanded,” says Strobl. “No one In Germany needs to make beer a bow, if he consciously avoids alcohol, or alcohol would like to remain free.”

Hmmm yummy! Without alcohol, the Cocktail with water melon

And in Berlin?

Trends, consumption figures: What the bartender says? On a balmy summer evening in Berlin I sit in the Cocktail Bar next door. All the tables are occupied, the card offers a variety of Mocktails, so the alcohol-free variant of classics such as “Pina Colada”, “Caipirinha”, or “Bloody Mary”. Whether or not he should sell more of these, I ask the bartender. He shakes his head. “But the people generally drink less.”

Actually amazing, when I alcohol consider, as a matter of course and society – the undisputed harmful – still is. Me further Trends, such as “Ecstatic Dance” or the “Sober Sensation Party a to fall”: well-received, a sober dance and Celebration events.

Certainly, there are exceptions in the Party capital. And yet, they are also, perhaps, for the present Generation that will determine the sales figures: According to the alcohol survey conducted by the Federal centre for health education, only 8.7 per cent of young people up to 17 years reported drinking once a week alcohol. In 2004, this figure was 21.2 percent.