Now there is also a beer crisis: there is a threat of a bottling stop due to a lack of CO2
Created: 09/13/2022, 05:25
By: Robert Langer
Beer bottles on a conveyor belt in a bottling plant.
(Iconic image) © Stefan M. Prager/Imago
CO2 shortage and grain prices: breweries in the Ebersberg district fear a bottling stop and cost explosion.
District
- "We don't know how to proceed.
That's extreme," says Johannes Hartwig, master brewer at Wildbräu in Grafing.
"We need an emergency plan," confirms Erich Schweiger from the brewery of the same name in Markt Schwaben.
The reason for this is postponed and missing deliveries of the gas CO2.
The German Brewers' Association had therefore already warned of rising beer prices.
The gas is used to "preload" bottles during filling.
This prevents the beer from coming into contact with air and foaming.
Erich Schweiger, head of the brewery in Markt Schwaben © Schweiger Brewery
CO2: Once a waste product, now a coveted raw material
CO2 actually occurs during fertilizer production.
However, with rising energy prices - also in the wake of the Ukraine war - production was shut down in Germany or relocated to other countries with cheaper energy.
The result: CO2 is becoming scarce and expensive.
The carbon dioxide in the Grafinger Wildbräu tank is enough for another week.
If nothing is delivered later, "we can still brew, but we can no longer filter or bottle," says the master brewer.
For the workforce, this could mean reducing overtime or short-time work.
First of all, maintenance work that usually takes place in winter will be preferred.
Breweries worried about beer bottling: Deliveries are postponed or cancelled
"We order everything we can in advance," says Hartwig.
A full CO2 tank is enough for three weeks.
The previous delivery came two weeks ago.
Even then he had made intensive phone calls in advance.
As now.
A delivery promised for last week has been postponed for the time being.
Brewers are looking for CO2: All of Europe is on the phone
Similar to Erich Schweiger from the brewery of the same name in Markt Schwaben.
A full tank of fuel is enough for him for a week and a half.
"You can't build a lot of stock there." His supplier had recently canceled at short notice.
"You can't plan anymore.
We work on sight.” In search of delivery quantities, the Markt Schwabeners “phoned all over Europe, all the way to Portugal”.
Apart from small quantities, however, this has not brought much so far.
Colleagues have also helped out.
And Schweiger is hoping for short-term deliveries that will at least cover the near future.
"The crisis management is running." The production of soft drinks such as orange lemonade, which requires a lot of CO2, has already been temporarily stopped in Markt Schwaben.
The beer is still going.
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Johannes Hartwig, master brewer at Wildbräu in Grafing © Stefan Roßmann
"It can get anyone," says Wildbräu boss Gregor Schlederer.
From his point of view, the general price increase for the starting products such as malting barley is also of concern.
An increase in the price of beer is currently not planned.
But at some point this step will come, "if it goes on like this".
Other breweries have stocked up on CO2 - and still have concerns
"The beer doesn't run out," says the Gut Forsting brewery.
"Of course we noticed that too," says master brewer Christian Straßer.
But his CO2 tank is almost full.
"That's enough." He also called the delivery company.
"I'm confident." The energy situation is difficult.
“We already have photovoltaics on the roof.” A wood chip system was planned as a further alternative.
The cooperative brewery could have benefited from its own forest.
"But now the funding for the conversion has been canceled," says Straßer.
The project is on hold.
Johann Reinwald from the small Saliterbräu in Oberpframmern reacted early on when there were the first signs of a CO2 bottleneck.
However, the delivery took much longer than usual.
The supply will probably last through the winter.
Reinwald does not know how it was technically in the past, when no gas was used for filling.
However, he remembers stories told by his father, who was born in 1919. When he was still a boy, he was sent from the farm with a beer mug to the innkeeper to fetch beer.
Such an open sale "would no longer be possible nowadays," says Reinwald, also because of food hygiene.
However, there is good news.
Draft beer is still available.
Because only very little CO2 is required for its bottling, as the Swabian farm manager Erich Schweiger explains.
You can read more news from the Ebersberg region here.
By the way: everything from the region is also available in our regular Ebersberg newsletter.