German beer exports in the 1890s

As I've posted so much about UK beer exports recently, it seems only fair to look at Germany's efforts, too.

In the years after reunification, everything looked rosy for German brewing. Both production an exports were increasing.

Foreign and Home Consumption of German Beer
Mr. Max J. Baehr, Consul at Kehl states: The German beer industry has grown year by year, and the increasing capacity of the establishments has made it necessary for the brewers to search for new markets where their overproductions could be disposed of. The home consumption, of course, is depended on as giving the first and greatest chance to sell the different kinds of beer, but the larger brewers, especially those who increased the capacity of their establishments more or less after the style of the big American breweries, have had to find customers in foreign countries. Their efforts for some time met with good results, and Germany’s beer industry had an export market for its products which seemed to be all that could be expected.
The Brewers' Journal vol. 35 1899, September 15th 1899, page 516.

You can see that production rose Steadily from 1871 to 1890, when it fell back for a couple of years. Then started to grow even more quickly than before. My guess is that domestic consumption drove that growth. The volumes are too big - 10 million hl between 1895 and 1900 - for it possibly to be mostly exports.

In the year 1885, the export of German beer reached its high-water mark, amounting in that year to 1,318,000 hectoliters (34,821,560 gallons), representing a value of 24,000,000 marks (5,712,000 dollars). The next year, however, showed a decrease, and since then the export has gone down to about one-half of what it was in 1885. The reason given for this decline is that the countries which were Germany’s best customers (France, Belgium, and the Netherlands) have increased their output sufficiently to nearly meet the home demand. The high duty placed on foreign beers by France has also had the effect of considerably reducing the import of German beers into that country. In all those years, the export of German beer in bulk (barrels) has been greater, contrary to general belief, than in bottles.
The Brewers' Journal vol. 35 1899, September 15th 1899, page 516.

I make those record 1885 exports 967,266 barrels. Which is almost double the half million barrels exported from the UK Around the same time. Even when German exports fell by 50% after 1885, they would still be about equal to the UK's. Quite impressive, when you consider German didn't have an extensive oversea empire. As we saw in earlier posts, a high percentage of UK exports when to British possessions.

German beer once had nearly a monopoly of the beer trade of South America; but there also, it is stated, the demand has decreased, while at the same time, according to trade papers, the demand for United States beer has increased. The decline of the German beer trade in Brazil alone during the years 1896 and 1897 is given as amounting to fully three-fourths of what the German brewers had exported to that country in former years.
The Brewers' Journal vol. 35 1899, September 15th 1899, page 516.

It would have been more understandable if local beer had been taking the place of German imports. Why was American beer replacing it? Was it cheaper? Better promoted? More to local taste?

It is a noticeable fact that, while the export has declined year by year, the production of beer in Germany has advanced steadily, showing that the home consumption has greatly increased. At present, the United States is the best foreign customer for German beer, importing 522,138 gallons in 1895 and 689,456 gallons in 1896. The export of beer from Germany to Venezuela, Japan, and China together did not in the years given amount to one-half the exports to the United States alone. Brazil and British India, as consumers of German beer, come next to the United States.

The German brewing industry has strong hopes of entirely supplanting the English in Australia and other English colonies.
The Brewers' Journal vol. 35 1899, September 15th 1899, page 516.

That figure for German exports to the USA in 1896 is 19,152 barrels. In 1898, the UK exported quite a bit more, at 28,556 barrels.

It was the Australians themselves who replaced UK imports.