Yes, Switzerland has a Beer Industry!
The real kick-start to a Swiss beer industry happened from 1860 to 1880, with phylloxera literally wiping out wine production, creating a demand for safe drinks, which was met by creating dozens of local breweries and drafting in specialised workforce from nearby German territories, especially Baden, Würtemberg and Bavaria. As a result, Swiss pale lager usually owes more to Helles than to Pilsner. Most remaining Swiss breweries were created during this era.
The Swiss market currently consists is held by two multinational groups, plus about 25 regionals and possibly up to two hundred microbreweries. Carlsberg Switzerland produces about 45% of the overall Swiss beer production, with the following brands: Cardinal, Feldschlösschen, Gurten, Hürlimann, Warteck, Valaisanne, and, of course, Carlsberg, as well as the Kronenbourg brand portfolio, and the likes of Leffe. Heineken Switzerland now accounts for about 25% of the Swiss beer production with the following brands: Calanda, Eichhof, Haldengut, and of course Amstel and Heineken. Again, most of the beer is not necessarily very inspiring although the Helvetia / Prix Garantie own-brand they brew for Coop supermarkets is surprisingly good for something that costs one quarter of the price of “green” Heineken. Another plus is the fact that in many areas, Heineken distributes local breweries’ beers. For example, in and around Berne (hint: this includes Bienne), Heineken tied bars very often have a few beers from local family brewers Felsenau. Those two groups account for close to 70% of the beer produced in Switzerland, but they above all account for 90% or so of the tied outlets, effectively making it very hard for microbreweries to find outlets, especially for draught beer. |
The 25 or so remaining regionals are all, bar Boxer, in German-speaking Switzerland. They usually deliver in a radius of 50 km around the brewery, often have a healthy local tied estate and are usually deeply rooted in local identities. Their beer range often is very much the four basic types from beer cartel days, plus the occasional unfiltered pale lager (Zwickelbier) or Hefeweizen (Locher in Appenzell, a brewery which increased its output five-fold since the end of the cartel, being a notable exception with its wide range of specialty beers). But even their basic pale lagers often are a few notches up the character scale compared to the beers of Carlsberg and Heineken, as they tend to be produced without such shortcuts as high-gravity brewing and fermentation; and they usually are unpasteurized.
- exerpted from the European Beer Consumers Union website |
While we don't have much personal experience on the subject, these look like some interesting websites to explore for those beer aficionados:
Beer in Switzerland - what you ought to know
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