Bad news and good news from Germany

Photo: Frank Vincentz [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)
or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)],
via Wikimedia Commons

Brauerei Schwelm in Nordrhein-Westfalen is threatened with closure after administrators failed to renegotiate debt.

The brewery, in existence since 1830, was bought out from Veltins in 2000 but has been suffering from uneconomic rents for hired equipment, though the business is basically viable and the beer is popular locally.

Overnight the situation has deteriorated with over half of the brewery staff given notice and told not to bother turning up for work on Monday.

Also affected is the Schlegel brand from Bochum, which is contract brewed at Schwelm.

Unlike the administrator, the employees have not given up hope and are urgently seeking investors to secure the future of the business. @SchwelmerBrauer has the latest news.

Happier news from Munich, where after a period of uncertainty it has been confirmed that the Forschungsbrauerei in Perlach will re-open this month. The retirement of the owners caused a longer than usual winter break while a successor was sought. Now the Silbernagl family have taken over and – with the exception of a few tweaks to the menu – they're not going to change a thing. According to Blog ums Bier, whence I've nicked all the news on recent developments, the Pilsissimus is as good as ever, and will be served unfiltered in future.

It’s reassuring to know that the Forschung will still be there the next time I’m in Germany. I hope that Schwelmer is too.