As the rising cost of almost everything in Austria is causing businesses everywhere to pass their rising costs onto the consumer in the form of price increases, Austrian news media is reporting draft beer will be more expensive in Austria in 2023.
This is due to Austria’s biggest brewery, Brau Union, announcing the price of draft beer in Austria will be increasing by around 9.5 percent starting in February.
Brands such as Gösser, Zipfer, Kaiser, Puntigamer, Schwechater, Wieselburger, Schladminger and Edelweiss belong to Brau Union, so you can expect the draft beer of all those brands to increase in the next couple of weeks.
Why will draft beer be more expensive in Austria?
Like every other business, Brau Union cites rising raw material, personnel and energy prices that are now forcing them to increase the price of draft beer.
Of course, as draft beer is sold to restaurants, bars, hotels, pubs and nightclubs, the increased price they will now be paying will also be passed onto the consumer.
That could mean an average glass of draft beer at a restaurant or beer could cost almost €5, which then makes having two or three drinks in an evening to be quite expensive.
Especially if you are eating at the same time, and if you buy draft beer from a brewery affiliated with Brau Union.
But, before you decide to switch your drinking to draft beer from a brewery like Ottakringer instead for instance, that Vienna-based brewery is also considering raising their prices sometime in 2023 as well as, obviously, they are experiencing the same rise in manufacturing costs as everyone else.
Will bottled and canned beer be increasing in price in Austria?
At the moment, the price increase for beer has been announced for draft beer only.
That is also likely to mean a sizable number of people who usually drink draft beer in Austria may switch to bottled or canned beer as it is substantially cheaper.
It may also cause some restaurants, bars, hotels etc. to switch from serving draft beer to canned or bottled beers, so they can keep prices down for their customers.
As prices continue to increase all over Austria for just about everything, however, this will likely mean prices of bottled and canned beer in Austria will also increase in 2023.
Not only due to increased manufacturing costs, but for the simple reason that higher demand usually means higher prices.
With a recession projected to occur in Austria in 2023, however, the increased beer prices may not last for long as, when recession hits, people stop spending. Particularly when it comes to so-called “non-essentials” like beer.
Due to falling spending in a recession, demand also falls while supply increases. Prices then fall as a result.