(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-25 16:45

BERLIN - Germans are losing their taste for beer, according to the German brewery association.

A woman in traditional Bavarian clothes toasts with a beer mug during the last day at Munich's 174th Oktoberfest October 7, 2007. [Agencies]

Per-capita consumption of beer in Germany, once the world's largest consumer of the drink, fell by 3.5 liters in 2007 to 112.5 liters - the eighth decline in the last nine years.

Brewery Association managing director Peter Hahn told Die Welt newspaper on Monday demographics were partly to blame for the fall from a peak of 156 liters in the 1980s.

But Germans are also drinking more non-alcoholic beverages, industry figures show.

Only once in the last nine years did beer consumption in Germany rise - in 2006 when it hosted the World Cup. It has long since fallen behind the Czech Republic and Ireland."