AOn the way to the cool sandstone cellar, which is several hundred years old, we pass old machines and tools that have long been no longer needed for brewing beer. The well-worn steps lead down to the whiskey cellar. Here, in more than 900-year-old sandstone vaults under the former farm building of the Alpirsbach monastery, eighty 200-liter oak barrels with whiskey are stored for at least five years before the distillate goes on sale. This has been happening since 2016. It made sense to distill whiskey from beer raw materials such as barley and malt if beer spirits had already been produced in the past, says Carl Glauner, managing partner of Alpirsbacher Klosterbräu. In addition to malt and herbal liqueurs, gin is also produced. “For the young people.”
The traditional brewer is successfully countering the declining beer consumption in Germany with a variety of ideas and special products. German breweries sold less beer in the first half of last year than before. 4.2 billion liters represented a decrease of 2.9 percent compared to the same period last year. This means the downward trend continues. Domestic consumption fell more sharply than exports in the first half of 2023. Ten years earlier, breweries had sold around 600 million liters more in the first half of the year. The reasons for the long-term decline are the increasing average age of the population and the trend towards a healthier diet.
Just don't become a cheap brand
In 2022, Alpirsbacher brewed 220,000 hectoliters of beer. The draft beer business is particularly important for the regional brand from the Black Forest. In the catering industry and at events, this share is 30 percent. “The proportion has remained constant for ten years, even though many restaurants have closed,” says Moritz Glauner, who is currently familiarizing himself with the brewery business in order to take on responsibility later. “A company needs stability and continuity,” says his father.
Anyone who brews beer must invest in modern equipment – even if beer consumption is declining.
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Image: Philipp von Ditfurth
The Kinzig Valley, in which the company is located, seems in some places as narrow as the German beer industry, in which there are eleven monastery breweries. At Alpirsbacher everything is made in-house and there is no contract bottling plant. It's a question of credibility, says the 65-year-old, and his son adds: “It's a question of what you focus on.” The Glauners don't want to be a cheap brand. It is important that long-term investments are made.
Currently, 10 million euros are being invested in a new bottling plant, which is scheduled to go into operation this year. The complex is looked after by Moritz Glauner. The advantage of the investment: The system can be operated with fewer personnel and the change of varieties is also quicker. Lower consumption of water and cleaning agents will also result in further savings in the future. And modern technology helps to reduce the scrap rate. It is currently 1.5 percent. “If we reduce it to 1.2 percent, that will reduce costs.”
Clear commitment to reusable
The company was once a trendsetter. For more than 50 years, the barley juice brewed in the monastery has flowed through one of the oldest beer pipelines in Europe. After commissioning the new bottling plant on the site of a former textile factory, the family brewery built a more than 900-meter-long beer pipeline that runs underground at a depth of several meters and with a corresponding gradient through half of the Black Forest town. The medium-sized company only uses hops and no hop extract. And for non-alcoholic beer, finished beer is dealcoholized. There is no intervention in the fermentation process. The brewing water comes from our own sources in a nearby nature reserve. The beers regularly win prizes in international competitions.
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