A record-breaking heat wave continues to affect Europe. And in Germany - it is causing serious concerns for one sector in particular: the country's brewers are on the verge of running out of beer bottles, as more beer is being drunk to beat the heat. They've issued an emergency appeal, calling for drinkers to return their empties to keep the beer flowing. CGTN's Natalie Carney has more from the town of Freising, one of Bavaria's best beer brewing regions.

There are two things synonymous with Bavaria, bikes and beer. And Germans prefer to drink their beer from a glass, be it a proper German Stein or from a bottle. But this elongated heat wave is threatening one of Germany's most popular ways of beating this heat. The Weihenstephan brewery was established in 1040 making it the world's oldest brewery. Yet today, it struggles with a very modern day problem - enough empty bottles to fill with their beer.

MATTHIAS EBNER WEIHENSTEPHAN INTERNATIONAL BRAND AMBASSADOR "It's hot and in Germany people are thirsty. People might not buy just one box a week but an entire crate of beer because they just need more and are more thirsty, so it takes a little longer to finish and bring back to the beverage market or retailer."

In Germany, you pay a deposit of 8 to 15 cents for every beer bottle purchased, which is returned to you when you return the bottle. That bottle is then returned to the brewers to be reused. But the current heat wave has demand for beer exceeding the pace at which bottles are being returned.

MATTHIAS EBNER WEIHENSTEPHAN INTERNATIONAL BRAND AMBASSADOR "I think a lot of empties are currently outsourced to the customer or in trade with the middleman. So we have to see and all have to work together to bring the bottles back into the market."

One local brewery in the west of the country went as far as to plead for the bottles' return on social media writing "first the empties, then the holiday!"

NATALIE CARNEY FREISING, GERMANY "While the lack of beer bottles could be considered traumatic enough for some Germans, there are many other disturbing aspects to this heat wave."

In parts of Germany, the heat has risen to 39 degrees, a record for this time of year when temperatures use to hover comfortably in the high 20s, low 30s. It took 200 firefighters four days to put out forest fires near the capital Berlin, made worst by repeated explosions reportedly caused by undiscovered World War II ammunition buried in the ground. An unrelenting dry spell has also caused severe drought in many areas of the country. German Framers are calling for a billion Euros in government aid to help compensate for crops that have been severely affected. According to estimates, grain has fallen by 18% knocking almost 1.5 billion Euros from industry revenues so far this year.

THOMAS ENDRULAT HEAD OF THE POTSDAM WEATHER SERVICE "The main consequences will be in agriculture, this drought has been there for a long time and it has a massive impact on the harvest. However, it is not completely uniform, in some areas of Germany enough precipitation has fallen. It is regionally different."

The higher temperatures are also making life for those who work outside, miserable.

MICHAEL BERGHOLZ CONSTRUCTION WORKER "We all got a note saying that we need to take more breaks. You just have to try to start work as early as is at all possible, so that you are done by midday."

While there are certainly fun ways of finding some respite from this heat, scientists are warning that this record-breaking heat wave is likely to become the rule rather than the exception as climate change disrupts weather patterns globally. Natalie Carney, CGTN, Freising.