I birrifici tedeschi sono costretti ad adattarsi come Gen Z Goes Alkoholfrei

*Nick Heubeck for Bloomberg News*

Over the course of its 172-year-history, the Lang-Bräu brewery in the north of Bavaria has weathered two world wars and the fall of the Iron Curtain, whose defenses once stood less than thirty minutes away. But money troubles in recent years proved more than the small operation could handle. Facing €12 million ($13.9 million) in costs for much-needed upgrades, the owners decided last summer to shut everything down.

“Breweries are capable of incredible suffering,” said Richard Hopf, who led the family business and is now overseeing its closure. “But when sales fall and costs keep going up, it leaves little room for long-term considerations.”

Lang-Bräu is in a situation that’s familiar to many German brewers. Between inflation and higher energy prices, financial pressures on beermakers are mounting. Adding to this uncertainty is another sobering development: in a country long defined by its beer culture, fewer young people want to consume alcohol.

For many Germans in Gen Z — which includes anybody born between 1997 and 2012 — beer is no longer a daily ritual but a rare indulgence. And when they do enjoy the occasional wheat beer or pilsner, they’re increasingly likely to choose an alcohol-free option.

[Read the full story here.](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-17/german-breweries-are-forced-to-adapt-as-gen-z-goes-alkoholfrei)

Everyone keeps telling how gen z dont drink, yet fail to tell how drugs consumption haa skyrocketed among them

> Some breweries have made moves to adapt — more than 800 varieties of alcohol-free beer are now available in Germany — but this hasn’t offset a broader decline.

There are some really good alcohol-free beers now.

The ‘problem’ for the producers: I only drink one at a time. There’s no desire for more than one. And this obviously doesn’t offset the amounts I drank with the alcoholic versions….

Why always slap “Gen Z” on everything? 😅

This has like nothing to do with Gen Z. I’m a Millennial and most of my friends don’t even like beer. In my generation it was mostly mixed beers like V+, or other better-tasting alcohol not called beer. If you already don’t like the taste of beer, you’re not going to buy alcohol-free beer either.

I’ve only ever seen pregnant women and middle-aged ex-alcoholics drink alcohol-free beer.

It’s not only Gen Z. Cannabis is “sort of” legal since April 2024. Studies showed that people who consume cannabis regularly will drink a lot less alcohol.

The CSU part of the Gouvernement is well connected to the beer lobby and big in culture wars so they try to restrict cannabis wherever possible even they should not according to the law. (EDIT: changed partyname from CDU to CSU)

Its always the same rhetoric..

1. Why is nobody thinking about the kids? 2. Cannabis is bad because it was illegal. 3. Cannabis will make you fall into harder drugs.

Meanwhile nobody seem to care that alcohol is 1000x worse, because of long living traditions, german culture and it’s big lobby/industry.

That’s a good thing because there will be fewer alcoholics, it’s generally bad for the economy. The first two associations with Germany after Hitler are beer and cars.

“Alkoholfrei”

The beer consumption in Germany has seen a downtrend since at least the 80s. The peak was in the 70s. There was a spike after reunification (~1992) and then the downtrend continued and accelerated.

Is not Gen Z (obviously, but it would ruin the headline), is just the result of many factors, from population aging, to health awareness, and shifts in preferences ….

Gen Z alcohol free? Meh I doubt that

Licher had a beer mix with Cola, called X². It had 3%Alcohol but you couldn’t really taste it. It was very refreshing without the pungency of beer.

Then, when the mother company decided to merge their mixes with Lichers, they changed the formula and it tastes like beer now. I asked the brewery why they changed the formula and they said “Customers” requested a more beery taste.

My guess is, they couldn’t get their beer to sell, so they made everything else to taste like beer so customers get accustomed to the beer taste and would buy their product again. In my opinion, it tastes like shit. I hate that beery taste with a passion.

No its taste is getting better, nothing to do with Gen Z

I have seen these headlines in every country but I have encountered maybe 2 persons of my generation that are genuinely sober. Everyone still drinks pretty much, but maybe less than older generations used to. If it is not a real ”party” I keep myself to 3-4 beers max.

Good. I just with Gen Z did the same will all the other drugs

Do we reqlly need to adopt the American ‘generation’ terminology?

I refuse to believe that Gen Z is not drinking. Statistics is one thing, but Its not what I see in reality, on the streets

i dont get drinking alcohol free beer- i’d much rather have apfelschoerle or some other good juice or lemonade

Yeah but that’s no problem since there will always be more people older than them still happily drinking their sorrows away