Shown Above: A brewmaster showing a bucket full of hops in pellet form used in brewing beer.

Now I know we have a real food supply crisis in the world when beer starts being affected. Apparently it is becoming increasing difficult for beer breweries to acquire hops which is a critical ingredient in most of the beer we drink. Some quotes from this article in Wired are quite revealing:

Gortemiller isn’t acting on a spurt of creativity. He’s coping with a
worldwide shortage of hops — the spice of beer. The dry cones of a
particular flowering vine, hops are what give your favorite brew its
flavor and aroma. Prices of the commodity are skyrocketing as hop
supplies have plummeted, forcing smaller brewmasters around the United
States to begin quietly tweaking their recipes, in ways that are easily
discerned by serious imbibers.

This is another quote that is very eye opening:

“When hops were $2 a pound, compared to $20 or $30 a pound now, it
didn’t matter. We’d throw them into the boil at various times,”
Gortemiller says. “That was an inaccurate way of doing things. We’re
modifying recipes and using about 20 percent less hops.”

It’s not just hops either - it’s even affecting barley supplies:

He’s paying more for barley, though — the price has jumped because of
a drought in Australia, flooding in Europe and a trend that has farmers
worldwide switching to corn to produce biofuels.

Some breweries put into place long term contracts to buy hops and barley well into the future. They pretty much get first pick so they won’t be affected as much. There are special hop varieties that may not even be available in the years to come. So what could all this mean? Some will need to change the formula upon which their beer is made. You could start seeing a bigger push towards varieties that use much less hops. There are some varieties out there already but they usually take a very small chunk of the overall beer market. More farmers are turning away from growing less profitable crops like hops and more profitable crops like corn which is now being used for biofuels. The beer will be more expensive and could taste quite different than what we are used to. Anyone for a cold one?