Uh-Oh, Germany Is Rapidly Running Out Of Beer Bottles

"In Germany, beer consumption is up as temperatures remain unusually high. This is good and bad news for the beer industry."

"While the breweries have more than enough beer to go around, they're running out of bottles because customers are not returning their empties quickly enough."

"Germans care about the environment about as much as their beer; that's why the glass bottles are recycled. Customers pay a small deposit on each one, which they get back when they return it to a store."

"There are about 4 billion beer bottles in circulation somewhere in Germany, and each bottle is refilled up to 30 times, according to Inside magazine, which caters to the drink industry. But as Germans drink more in this heat, and empty bottles pile up by the back door at home, trouble is brewing for the beer-makers."

"Christian Schuster, from the Greif brewery in Bavaria, recently appealed to customers to return their crates of empty vessels promptly or go without beer."