The costs for bar owners are much higher than the last time the beer festival could go on due to the increased energy prices, wages and general inflation. They have to partly pass this on in the price for a Maß, as a beer mug of exactly one liter is called during the festival.
The Municipality of Munich determined that a Maß may cost between 12.60 and 13.80 euros. In 2019 that was 10.80 euros to 11.80 euros. Economic adviser and boss of the Oktoberfest, Clemens Baumgärtner, thinks it is especially important that the psychological limit of 14 euros per liter has not been exceeded. “But the beer prices are nevertheless quite high.”
In addition to the higher costs for bar owners, the materials and craftsmen needed to build the large beer tents during the Wiesn, as the Oktoberfest is actually called, have also become more expensive.
The prices for the beer brewed especially for the Oktoberfest are always a sensitive point in Munich. But the price increase for beer is not only happening in Bavaria. Heineken, for example, warned in its quarterly figures in April that beer will probably become even more expensive in the coming period. As a result of the war in Ukraine, prices for raw materials such as grain and energy have risen sharply.
It’s not just beer that is expensive at the Oktoberfest, which runs from September 17 to October 3. A liter of water will cost 9.67 euros on average, 80 cents more than in 2019. The municipality of Munich does not set the exact prices for drinks during the festival, but only checks whether they are proportional.