Café De Nachtegaal in Uden, which has been tapping cheap German beer since January 1, is getting more and more customers because of this stunt. “We saw the number of customers increase by at least forty percent in recent weeks,” says pub owner Anke Wijdeven. According to her, they are partly curious, but most new customers keep coming back.
Until recently, De Nachtegaal served Heineken and saw it become increasingly expensive. Anke would have to ask 3.25 euros for a beer from Heineken. That is why she decided to switch to beer from a small German brewery from New Year, which she sells for 2.25 euros.
Anke only gets positive reactions about the taste of the German beer. “They all like it. New customers come to taste it out of curiosity, they first have a look at the cat out of the tree. But in the end they come back with friends because they like it.”
“I don’t even have to drive to Germany for the beer.”
Initially, Anke always had to go to Germany to import the beer herself, but now the Uden liquor store House of Beers has decided to import the beer. “How nice is that? I don’t even have to drive to Germany anymore,” says Anke.
Café De Nachtegaal has no complaints about media attention. After Omroep Brabant was the first to report on the cheap German beer, national news media such as NOS, RTL and Hart van Nederland followed. The result: from all over the Netherlands, responses came from pubs that were also interested in switching to German beer. Anke knows that pubs in Aarle-Rixtel and Langenboom, among others, are also seriously considering whether they can switch to cheaper beer from Germany.
Incidentally, not every pub owner can just tap beer from another brewery. Many catering entrepreneurs rent the premises of the brewery and are therefore contractually bound to the beer brand of the owner of the premises. This does not apply to café De Nachtegaal, because it has its own building.
The café in Uden expects to be very busy for carnival: “We have live music on Saturday and Monday and our cheap beer. It’s just like Gillis here, mass is cash.”