German Breweries See Their First Increase in Sales in 7 Years

Bottoms up for Germany! The German government says the country's breweries saw their first increase in sales volume in 2014 after seven years of declines. The office said Friday that overall sales of German beer in 2014 were 9.56 billion liters, or about 2.525 billion U.S. gallons, an increase of 1 percent over 2013. Domestic consumption accounted for 83.7 percent of the volume, and rose 0.4 percent over the previous year. The office said Friday that overall sales of German beer in 2014 were about two-and-a-half billion gallons, that's up about 1% from 2013. The Statistical Office did not speculate why consumption rose, but 2014 featured the World Cup, which Germany won. The country saw its last increase in beer consumption in 2006 -- when Germany was the World Cup host, though finished a disappointing third.