Sad news - beer prices rise! Beer prices will continue to rise because costs are reducing the profits of brewers.

Helmut Kurschat runs the Brauhaus Südstern restaurant in Berlin, Germany. Unlike many bars and pubs, Kurschat does not import beer, but brews it himself.

Despite this, it cannot help but raise prices.

Last year, a 400-milliliter beer at Brauhaus Südstern cost 3.60 euros. Today it costs 3.90 euros, an increase of just over 8%.

Beer prices rise

"The cost of everything has gone up," Kurschat tells  at the Brauhaus Südstern brewery.

Since beer is brewed in boilers heated with electricity, the production requires a lot of energy.

The German newspaper NZZ has recently reported that Germans who sign a contract with electricity marketers today are paying hundreds or even thousands of euros more than last September.

"Fortunately, I still have an old contract that has not gone up so far," says Kurschat. But its benefits have been affected by other factors.

His suppliers charge him more to take the beer ingredients from Bamberg to Berlin, a journey of more than 400 kilometers, due to the increased cost of fuel.

Beer prices rise results

As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the prices of diesel and gasoline have risen a lot, sometimes exceeding two euros per liter despite the fact that Germany introduced a fuel tax cut on June 1.

The malt needed to make beer has also become more expensive.

"This is eating the profits all over the place," Kurschat explains.

Holger Eichele, director of the German Brewers Association, tells  that the price of malt had already increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it is now 70% higher than in April last year.

"Breweries are finding it increasingly difficult to get beer malt at affordable prices," says Eichele.

But the constant bottlenecks in supply do not end there.

Beer prices rise statements

According to the Deutscher Mälzerbund (Association of Malt Makers), the price of brewing grain has doubled: from 200 euros a ton to 400 euros in about a year.

"In addition, labor costs are also increasing in our company, but I cannot criticize this. 12 euros, which is supposed to be the minimum wage, is not excessive," Kurschat comments.

In the summer he says he employs up to 15 people whom he wants to pay fairly. But those extra costs have to be covered somehow, Kurschat explains.

"For us, this is about the consumers, to whom we pass on the increased costs," he says.

They are already absorbing the effects of this upward price spiral even when they buy a beer at the supermarket.

An assessment by the market research company Nielsen IQ showed that beer has become systematically more expensive in Germany over the past 11 years, with an increase of 26%.

In 2011, a liter cost 1.13 euros. Today, it costs 1.43 euros.

The sharpest increase occurred between 2021 and 2022 in the midst of the Ukrainian war, while between 2019 and 2020 was the only period in which the price of a liter did not change.

Kurschat does not believe that the price hikes have peaked. "I think the price will go up another 10 or 20 cents this year alone," calculates Kurschat, who has been in the catering business for more than 40 years.

"My lease here lasts for another 5 years. Then, I will be 70 years old. It's a good age to quit," he says, before acknowledging that he doesn't quite know what will happen to the brewery after that

Beer prices rise summary

• Economic conditions are making the Germans' favorite drink, beer, less and less affordable.
• A Berlin brewer says the costs of delivery, staff and malt have risen.
• Beer is also more expensive in supermarkets, with a liter 26% more expensive than in 2011.