No Corona aid for family businesses: the brewery invents monster beer crates out of necessity - and hits the ground running

Hotel: closed, restaurant: closed - Corona aid?

Nothing.

In order to somehow make ends meet, a brewery in Franconia invented the monster beer crate.

With success.

• The brewery-inn owned by Hans-Günther Wirth (34) in the Franconian Adelsdorf north of Nuremberg, including the hotel, has been closed since the beginning of the lockdown.

• The 270-year-old family business does not get a cent from Corona aid.

• Wirth wants to draw attention to the grievance

  with a

  monster beer crate

  - with success.

  Not his first coup, by the way.

• You can always read all Corona news for the Nuremberg region and for all of Bavaria up-to-date and only with us in the ticker.

Adelsdorf

-

achieved his

most important goal

with his

: attention.

The problem is not new, nobody has been interested in it yet.

promised a remedy in mid-November, nothing has happened so far.

Franconian brewery invents monster beer crate - the idea has a deadly serious background

Thanks to the 120-bottle beer crate including a

, all of

now looking

at the small

and hotel in

, 40 kilometers north of Nuremberg *.

Sat.1 was already there, Antenne Bayern, the

Bayern 3 is already there and so on.

That is exactly what the young brewer wanted.

Because Wirth wants to

draw attention

to an

that

affects

the

that make

a part.

Bavaria problem: Brewery inns often do not get Corona help - McDonald's does

The problem is actually quickly explained

.

Mixed companies, i.e. companies that stand on several pillars, only receive the lavish Corona help from the Free State and the federal government if at least 80 percent of sales are affected by the shutdown.

Wirth's brewery made too much turnover compared to hotels and restaurants and exceeded this limit.

Because beer can still be brewed and sold in bottles.

That is why there is not a cent for the 270-year-old brewery-inn.

Neither for the hotel nor for the economy.

who previously lived mainly from street sales, which they can happily continue to do without having to count them towards the help, receive full funding, i.e. up to 75 percent of sales in the same months of the previous year.

And that's not all.

No Corona help for traditional Bavarian companies - still huge drop in sales

Because now you have to know that the Bavarian brewery inns are only a model of

in combination

.

They virtually enter into a symbiosis.

Brewing your own beer as a craft business only works economically if you serve it yourself, i.e. in your own restaurant, in your own beer garden - or at parties.

Wirth: "The bottled beer is currently selling well, but we hardly make any profit with it."

+

McDonald's gets the Corona aid, neither of them: Hans-Günter and Maria Wirth in their brewery.

© Brewery-Gasthof Zum Löwenbräu

No Corona help for Bavarian brewery inns: The company makes a loss of 200,000 euros

So it may well be that the brewery made up 24 percent of sales in November and December 2019.

But now, in the tough Bayern lockdown *, that brings little.

Wirth expects a loss of 200,000 euros in November and December alone.

"We're not dying yet, but we have to fight"

Hans-Günter Wirth, boss of the brewery-inn Zum Löwenbräu

The

family with Wirth's parents, his wife Maria (34) and their three children depend on the

.

Employees from three companies are attached to it.

A village community is attached to it.

And not just there.

“We're not dying yet, but we have to fight,” says Wirth.

Many others in Bavaria are doing worse, the brewer knows.

"The numbers you hear make you dizzy."

As a medium-sized family business, the brewery-restaurant is a bit of the essence of Bavarian culture.

Brewery inns actually experienced a renaissance in Bavaria

Because in the last ten years in particular, this particular form of business has experienced a small renaissance.

In many places, the younger generation has drilled out the standard brightness and pimped up the kitchen.

is another example.

The brewer is as old as Wirth and now sells his non-alcoholic IPA “Le Chauffeur” as far as Italy and France.

When he took over the brewery in the Upper Palatinate town of Nittenau am Regen from his father, there was only the light and he had to contend with declining sales due to dying bars.

In the meantime, there is not only direct sales in retail stores, but also in bars.

But above all, he pours his beer in the family restaurant, which his brother refined with modern cuisine and made it known far beyond the town - at least until Corona.

"It's a strange mood here at the moment," says Jakob.

"Nobody knows exactly how to proceed."

Before that, many small brewers immediately reinvested the boom.

Wirth in Franconia has renewed its brewery for around 1.5 million euros.

Jakob in der Oberpfalz has built a huge warehouse that was ready in time for the lockdown.

Monster beer crate from Franconia: The idea came with the first lockdown

They remain resourceful, the Bavarian brewers.

The

Wirth family came

the

at the first lockdown.

A little joke and joie de vivre despite Corona.

But then the first lockdown was a little less strict.

The Wirths immediately opened their beer garden, poured beer to go and at the same time offered a prize for the three most beautiful beer labels, designed by customers.

The monster beer crate disappeared into the drawer.

Giant beer crate from Franconia: 300 euros, 120 kilos - hardly any profit

Out of necessity, Wirth brought it out again.

His first photo immediately hit Facebook on Facebook.

Then the media jumped up.

“Right now we need someone to answer the phone, so many are calling.” That's fine with the brewer.

He won't get rich with it.

His carpenter can only meet the demand to a limited extent.

“He'll manage 15 before Christmas, 12 have already been sold.” The package costs 300 euros.

200 euros for the crate, 100 euros for 120 bottles of beer and a deposit.

"The idea is not new now, others have already figured it out," admits Wirth.

But Wirth is a bit of a media professional.

He already drew attention to himself in 2017 when he referred to a curious EU directive that prohibited the serving of foam drinks in stone mugs *.

All media jumped up at that time too.

And Wirth was successful.

The policy was withdrawn.

Hopefully he will succeed in a similar trick with his 120-kilo box.

The attention is already certain to him.

Now it would be nice if politicians reacted.

“I don't want any money for my brewery, I just want to be treated the same way as McDonald's or Starbucks when it comes to compensation.

That's all about me. ”

List of rubric lists: © Brauerei-Gasthof Zum Löwenbräu