Brauerei Gebr. Maisel KG, a family-owned brewery from Bayreuth announced to buy Püls-Bräu from Weismain retroactive to October 1, 2022. Hans Püls and his son Johannes Püls, who lead the 224 year-old brewery in their sixth and seventh generation, are happy about the takeover, which serves to “ensure the successful continuation of the family business”. According to their own statements, the Maisel family is the “perfect partner” for Püls since the families have been friends for many years.
Jeff Maisel, who runs his brewery in its fourth generation, is looking forward to the new team and sees great potential in Püls-Bräu: "The brewery team has done a great job for many years, because the beers are of excellent quality and the production facility is perfectly maintained.”
Since the 1980s, Maisel has nationally become known for its wheat beers (“Maisel’s Weisse”). In recent years, however, the brewery has very successfully participated in the growth of the “Hell-Bier” segment, a traditional Bavarian pale lager beer.
This year alone, sales of Bayreuther Hell grew by around 30% to almost 600,000 hl. The product has not only replaced wheat beer as the strongest beer type at Maisel, but also caused bottlenecks in production.
That's why Jeff Maisel decided last year to build a EUR 100 million greenfield brewery close to the old brewery designed for the production of half a million hectoliters of beer (inside.beer 22.6.2021). However, the construction was delayed mainly due to protests from residents.
In order to get relief for the most urgent capacity problems, Maisel has now bought Püls-Bräu from Weismain, which is only 30 kilometers away. Püls currently produces a little more than 300,000 hl of beverages, thereof only around 60,000 hl of beer.
For years, Püls was very successful in the production of non-alcoholic beverages. Every year about 250,000 hl of soft drinks, including about 120,000 hl Libella under the license from ADM/Wild are being produced in Weismain. The license contract includes a change-of-control clause that allows Wild to terminate the contract when the licensee is sold. However, it is questionable whether this will happen, because Maisel is at least as interesting a partner for Wild as Püls.
Maisel could certainly use the freed capacity for its beer. However, it seems difficult to brew Bayreuth Hell in Weismain, since the name is a designation of origin and cannot easily be brewed outside of Bayreuth. The beers under the Maisel's brand name and the equally successful Aktien-Zwickl seem to be less problematic in this respect.
