A bitter hops shortage increases beer prices

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Charlotte.com has the story:

A worldwide shortage of a key beer ingredient, hops, is causing beer prices to spike, beer batches to be delayed, and talk of your favorite pale ales being forced to (gulp) mellow out.

Already, in Charlotte, retailers are reporting that beers from smaller, “craft” breweries have risen about $1 per six-pack this year, with more increases coming as brewers pass on the cost of a five- to tenfold increase in hops prices.

That’s if the brewers can find any hops at all.

“There’s none out there to be had,” says John Lyda, vice president and brewmaster at Asheville’s Highland Brewing, which raised prices on its beers in February and was forced to delay one product, Kashmir IPA, because the hops arrived a month later than usual.

Craft beers, which are made in smaller batches than macrobrews such as Budweiser, have risen in popularity since the 1980s and now are commonly found in supermarkets and restaurants. The intensity and flavor of these beers is often provided by an abundant use of hops, which are small pinecone-shaped flowers that have been critical to beer-making for centuries.

Why the shortage now? It’s a classic sift of agricultural supply and demand. “There was a glut of hops, which caused low prices, which caused a lot of people to go out of business,” says Ralph Olson, owner of Hopunion, a Washington state supplier of hops to brewers across the U.S. “Now, there’s a shortage.”

The news gets more bitter for beer drinkers. Recent corn subsidies have lured surviving farmers away from hops, leaving only 118,000 acres worldwide dedicated to growing it. Worse yet, last year’s crop was thinned by a drought in Australia and excessive rains in Europe.