Heatwave catches Germany’s beer makers on the hop

THE summer heatwave is causing serious problems in Germany – the country’s brewers are on the verge of running out of beer bottles.

The situation is so severe that Moritz Fiege, a brewery in the city of Bochum, has issued an emergency appeal asking drinkers to return their empties.

Germans are keen on recycling their glass bottles. Every beer purchased requires a deposit of 8 to 15 cents (7p to 13p) a bottle. This is refunded when you bring the bottles back and German supermarkets typically have long queues of people returning their empties.

The bottles are then returned to the brewers to be reused, cutting out the need for sorting and processing.

But in the current heatwave the demand for beer is outstripping the pace at which bottles are being returned.

According to Niklas Other, editor of a German brewing industry magazine, the problem is “industry-wide”.

A spokesman for Veltins, one of Germany’s biggest brewers, said the company has ordered thousands of extra bottles. But, with bottles usually ordered a year in advance, that isn’t an option for smaller operators.