The Bavarians are rising – at least when it comes to beer.

Sales of “Hellem” – i.e. light full-bodied beer – have seen double-digit growth in supermarkets and beverage stores in a nationwide comparison, bucking the downward trend in the beer market.

For the first ten months of 2021, the market researchers from Nielsen recorded an increase of almost 14 percent in retail for the type of beer native to Bavaria.

This makes it the biggest winner among beer types.

According to the Nielsen data, the market share of Hellbier rose from 7.9 to 8.8 percent.

Hell is the undisputed number two behind the still dominant Pils.

Bavarian breweries, which export more, benefit from this.

And in the meantime, large Pils producers from North Rhine-Westphalia have also jumped on the trend.

They sell the light, as they say in Bavaria, through their retail and catering channels or with their own brand.

"Enormous export successes" of Bavarian breweries

"We have enormous export successes," reports Lothar Ebbertz, General Manager of the Bavarian Brewers' Association.

For a long time, the image of the light color outside the white-blue borders was "not that sparkling", but it has been trendy for some time.

The typical shape of the beer bottle - with a short neck and rather stocky - is on the rise again, "because it is perceived as authentic".

The increased demand for Hellem has also helped the Bavarian breweries to come through the Corona crisis relatively well overall, says Ebbertz.

And even if more and more breweries are now jumping on the trend, many are doing it with Bavarian partners - in order to have an "authentic sender".

"In recent years we have noticed that light beers with a Bavarian sender are particularly in demand," confirms Peter Lemm, spokesman for the Krombacher brewery from North Rhine-Westphalia. She has had a sales partnership with the Starnberger Brauhaus in retail and gastronomy since 2021. The Schadeberg family owns a minority stake in the Bavarian company. According to the latest figures, sales of Krombacher Hell beer stagnated at a relatively low level in 2021.

The Warsteiner brewery has had a foothold in Bavaria since 2001 through a stake in the König Ludwig Schloßbrauerei Kaltenberg in Fürstenfeldbruck.

It also includes the traditional brand "Oberbräu Hell" brewed in Holzkirchen, which Warsteiner intends to sell throughout Germany from the end of February.

The look is also Bavarian - with a chapel, a pair of traditional costumes and white-blue diamonds on the bottle.

People in the Sauerland are skeptical

Veltins from Sauerland, on the other hand, relies on its new Pülleken brand with a funny joke on the label, as sales manager Volker Kuhl says.

They want to be independent of the variety trend and not get lost in the beer series with a Bavarian image.

The national test for Hell is still pending.

According to Veltins, 68 percent of the retail Hellbier volume is sold in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg and 7 percent in North Rhine-Westphalia.

This means that only a quarter is distributed among all other federal states.

One of the most successful exporters from Bavaria is the Bayreuth brewery, also known as the Bayreuth Brauhaus.

Her Helles can be seen more frequently in Berlin, among other places.

"Even in northern Germany, the Bavarian philosophy of life has found its way through our Helles," says CEO Hans-Joachim Leipold.

The light beer is difficult to produce and is considered the premier class among master brewers, advertises Leipold.

"With this beer style, not even the smallest brewing error can be hidden and the beer drinker would immediately notice a discrepancy." If you believe that, the Bayreuth-based company is doing a good job at the moment: the beer drinker seems to like the light beer.