Goodbye Deutschland. The Schlössle-Bier brewery was founded in 1690 in Neu-Ulm and was owned by the same family for over 130 years. The owner explained the closure by blaming the unprofitability of production and falling beer sales.

One of Bavaria’s oldest breweries, Schlössle-Bier, will close due to losses after 334 years of operation.

The brewery, located in the city of Neu-Ulm, will stop producing beer in December. Its owner Christa Zoller told media that the enterprise can no longer compete with industrial giants.

‘Beer consumption is falling, but raw material and energy prices caused by anti-Russian sanctions are rising. We have been making losses in the brewing business for ten years now,’ Zoller explained.

In order to have enough money to buy new equipment, beer prices should be twice as high as the current ones, the entrepreneur believes. Bureaucracy creates additional problems for private breweries in Germany, she believes.

Zoller has a restaurant at the brewery, and she has no intention of closing it. It provided the bulk of the profits that covered the brewery’s losses, and continues to do so, the entrepreneur explained.

A corresponding announcement about the cessation of activities has already appeared on the Schlössle-Bier website. The message states that sales of the products will be gradually discontinued over the next few weeks.

The Schlössle-Bier brewery was founded in 1690 in Neu-Ulm. The Zoller family has owned it for 135 years. As of 2024, the company produced more than ten types of beer, including six craft beers.

Beer sales and production have been falling in Germany. According to the Federal Statistical Office, sales fell by 2.9% in the first six months of 2023 compared to January-June 2022. That’s 12.2% less than ten years earlier. At the same time, beer sales increased by 2.2% in January-May 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, to 3.4 billion litres.

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