87 Million Hectoliters Sold In Germany

In 2020, German breweries and beer warehouses sold about 87 million hectoliters of beer, according to Germany’s Federal Statistical Office. The figure represented a 5.5 percent decline from 2019, shaped by the COVID-19 crisis, closed gastronomy, and the cancellation of large public events. The year also illustrates how strongly modern German beer culture had come to be associated with pale bottom-fermented beer. Pils remained the dominant beer style in the German market, while other styles such as wheat beer, Helles, Export, Kölsch, and Alt occupied smaller shares. This was a historical reversal from the postwar decades, when Dortmunder Export still played a much larger role in Germany’s industrial beer culture.