Residents Measure Civic Pride by the Beer

Interesting article from the WSJ. Makes me want to go buy a 12-pack of Summit EPA and a couple 6ers of Schells' German Pale Ale. Bruce In One German Town, Residents Measure Civic Pride by the Beer By VANESSA FUHRMANS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ISERLOHN, Germany -- Jochen Aron used to drink a frothy mug of Iserlohner Pilsener just because he was thirsty. Then, saving the brand from extinction became his mission. These days, the 49-year-old bathroom-fixture salesman stocks extra cases of the hometown beer in his pantry. He informed his relatives that he wouldn't drop by for Sunday visits unless they served Iserlohner Pils. And one Saturday recently, he arrived hours early to a federal-soccer-league match in nearby Dortmund, armed with bottles of Iserlohner Pils to proselytize at tailgate parties. "If I couldn't drink this beer, I don't know what I'd do," said Mr. Aron as he handed out a round of deep golden beers, then took a gulp himself. Wiping the foam from his lip, he knotted his bushy brow at the thought. "I'd probably have to stop drinking altogether," he said. The threat to his favorite brew isn't hypothetical. Five months ago, the parent company of Iserlohn's 104-year-old local brewery declared it would shut down the plant this summer. Like most of the country's 1,300 breweries, Iserlohn's principal market extends only about 20 miles beyond the city limits. A dwindling population and trendier temptations such as wine have hurt sales. Unless the 99,000 people of Iserlohn started cracking open more beers and sparked someone's interest in buying the brewery, the brew generations of Iserlohners have grown up with would become extinct. While Germany's brewing tradition is world-famous, its fragmented beer industry is in trouble. Germany is mired in its second recession in two years, and its once-vaunted Mittelstand, the thousands of small- to medium-size companies that make up its economic backbone, has been hit with a record number of bankruptcies. But the country's brewers also have another worrisome problem: Germans just don't drink as much beer as they used to -- only about 15 cases a year per person, compared with 17 in the mid-1990s. Most German breweries are now too small to expand abroad to compensate, leaving them vulnerable to foreign takeovers or to shutting down. Nearly 200 are on the block or losing money. Of Germany's 10 biggest beers, two already are owned by foreign companies, including Beck's, its top-selling beer. In Iserlohn, the prospect of a brewery closing drove locals to the streets in protest. It also prompted an unusual collective vow to drink more Iserlohn. "Every liter counts!" became the chant at "Save Iserlohner" demonstrations and beer festivals. Locals began boycotting restaurants that didn't serve Iserlohner Pils and tossing back extra beers at the ones that did. The beer-drinking strategy worked. It pushed Iserlohn beer production up 6% and persuaded three local investors to buy out the brewery last month. Still, the brewery's future depends on Iserlohners keeping the drinking up. "It has made a difference because if you're going to buy something like this, you want to be sure the market is going to be there for you," said Peter Michaelis, the brewery's managing director and one of the investors. In Iserlohn, it hasn't been all that difficult to get people to drink more. "We thought about asking the brewery to hook up a pipeline straight to our house," joked Rainer Schimmel, an Iserlohn engineer who, with his wife, Angelika, drinks about a case of beer every two weeks, often at get-togethers with the neighbors. "We have to do what it takes," he said. Others, such as Mr. Aron's wife, Elvira, changed their drinking habits to aid the cause. Until several months ago, she rarely drank beer, preferring the occasional Ramazzotti, a popular Italian after-dinner drink. Now, she drinks beer almost exclusively and, at a good party, can down as many as 10 small glasses. "It's a pretty strong-tasting beer, but I don't really notice it," she said as her husband passed her another. Beer in Iserlohn -- and much of Germany -- is still considered an essential drink, more on par with milk and orange juice than with other alcoholic beverages. Germans often call it fluessiges Brot, or "liquid bread," and a morning beer is a weekend ritual for many. On a recent Saturday morning, many adults, young and old, stopped for a quick one at an outdoor cafe on the town's main market square, then moved on to do more shopping. Many Iserlohn households say they consume about a case a week. Iserlohn's beer is brewed with water from the Gruener Tal, the lush wooded valley in which this northwestern German town lies. That and a special recipe give Iserlohner Pilsener, the brewery's biggest of three brands, its hoppy, bitter taste. Over the years, the beer has become part of the town's identity. The green and gold Iserlohner Pilsener sign hangs over the door of nearly every restaurant, cafe and bar. The brewery is the main sponsor of the Iserlohner Roosters, the town's national-league ice-hockey team, and a backer of numerous municipal activities, including a summer outdoor concert series. "My father introduced me to this beer when I was seven or so," said Mr. Schimmel, who has stuck to Iserlohner Pils all of his adult life. Since his father didn't like to hang out at bars, after work he'd send his young son off with a jug to fetch some from the neighborhood watering hole. "Even before I ever drank it, it was part of a special ritual in my life," the younger Mr. Schimmel said. For decades, thousands of British and German soldiers stationed here helped locals drink the beer, but those regional military bases have closed in recent years. And a new generation of Iserlohners is often more inclined to drink smoother-tasting beers from far afield. "It's not really my favorite," said Ulrich Bunse, a college student who prefers mixed-beer concoctions, a popular and fast-growing niche with younger German drinkers, or Veltins, a less bitter and bigger beer brand brewed in nearby Grevenstein. By the time Iserlohn's parent company, Brau & Brunnen, threw in the towel in January and announced that it would close the brewery, it was producing only 39 million gallons of beer a year, less than half its capacity. Now, with the brewery owned by a local clothing-store owner and two other investors, Iserlohn's Mr. Michaelis says it will be able to react more quickly to such marketing challenges. It's pinning some of its hopes on a couple of yet-to-be-introduced beverages, including a Pilsener-and-mango-flavored drink. The owners are also cutting the brewery's work force to 50 from 80 and raising prices to position Iserlohner Pils as a premium brand. A small glass now commonly sells in bars for about $1.40. But even local beer-drinking supporters say the brewery will have to find new contracts and markets to keep it growing, and not just rely on Iserlohners to keep drinking more and more beer. "In the end, we can't really save the brewery by ourselves," said Andreas Thiemann, a local journalist, whose household is on the case-a-week regime. "We can only drink what we can, and then that's it." Write to Vanessa Fuhrmans at vanessa.fuhrmans(a)wsj.com2 URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105606434091202100,00.html Hyperlinks in this Article: (1) http://WSJbooks.com/floating (2) mailto:vanessa.fuhrmans@wsj.com Updated June 20, 2003 Copyright 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Printing, distribution, and use of this material is governed by your Subscription agreement and Copyright laws. For information about subscribing go to http://www.wsj.com ________________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned for computer viruses.