Until recently, I was regularly drinking Carlsberg. Mostly because of habit and it was a taste I was used to and liked. Sounds good enough, but I was vaguely aware that this was a slighty expensive option and I was generally being very lazy.

Now if price isn’t an option, then there are many craft beers that are worth digging into, both local and national. And if that is your direction, then you should absolutely start out at Naiv or Wir Komplizieren, both of which have tasting menus, and there is also the annual Craft Beer Festival, by coincidence this Friday/Saturday at the Goethe Uni campus!

But back to regular options, essentially the beer you would buy in quantity at the supermarket to keep a party moving. Especially if that happens to be a football-watching party at the upcoming Euro2024 – you are going to want to know which beers to buy without killing your budget!

Going local

I have included Carlsberg, also as a reminder for myself how much extra I paid, for comparison. The real scam though is cost differential between buying a crate (normally 24 bottles) versus buying a 6 pack (wrapped in cardboard). I have included three popular types of local beer: Binding (from right here in Frankfurt), Krombacher (from Kreuztal, near Bonn) and Bitburger (from Bitburg near Luxembourg). You could also try Warsteiner or Jever, both common in shops here, but I’m not a fan :).

Its crazy to think that I have been spending 3 times the amount compared to drinking a local beer, but the trick is to go for the crates. These plastic crates are heavy and unwieldy, but its really worth going down this route. Once you have got the logistics sorted and found somewhere to store in the apartment without looking like an alcoholic, you can save a lot of money.

Buy bigger bottles…

Also going for the half litre bottles instead of the 0.33 litre, is worth considering, but I find that the larger bottle just encourages people to drink more! What is interesting is that the crates for 0.5L and 0.33L are the same price and although there are less bottles in total there is a 20% drop in price. If you don’t mind even heavier crates.

Recycling

The best part is actually the recycling. Instead of having to drop the empty bottles one by one into the machine at the supermarket to get your €0.08 deposit back, just place the whole crate of empty bottles on the conveyer belt underneath (see picture) and it will go through directly. To save you some stress on this, make sure you empty all bottles completely (even an inch in one bottle will get the crate rejected), and remove all bottle tops (closed/unopened bottles will also get the whole crate rejected. Interestingly, you don’t have to have the same brand of bottles in the crate, just a full crate of the right size recyclable beer bottles will still work.

And if this post helped you, feel free to treat me to a coffee (beer)! Blogging’s thirsty work!