Raise your Glasses, Raise the prices; Global warming makes beer more expensive.
Never though you’d see the day where a beer bellied pub goer would be bothered by the effects of global warming. Now, on top of paying for gas to get in his over sized Ford to drive a couple blocks down to the bar, he has to worry about the rising prices of beer. Yes, beer.
Most big beer companies and even smaller imported beers are dependent on international importing for hops and barley, the two key ingredients to that lovely lager. But because of global warming, the collapsing economy and the war, brewery’s and pubs in England, United States, and Amsterdam may face a harsh reality that they may not survive.
Due to these three things the key ingredients in beer such as hops to rise dramatically since last year. In 2007, the cost for a brewery to buy a pound of hops was about $3 - $5 dollars. Amazingly, in 2008, a pound of hops can cost up to $35 - $40 dollars for a brewery to buy.
This of course not being the only ingredient to suffer, barley is an international import as well. The prices of barley have increased up to 30% since last years numbers. This combine with the increasing cost of oil, has also made distribution an issue.
To put all these crunched numbers more directly, the average price one a six pack of imported beer has risen one to two dollars forcing beer drinkers to settle for larger beer companies such as Coors and Anheuser-Busch. These larger companies aren’t as effected because they have more clout in the market for ingredients.
Joshua Grenzund says on TheCampusWord.com that,
“craft brewers and pubs have to face tough decisions on whether they can salvage very small profit margins — usually about 9 percent for brewers — by cutting back in other areas, or if they have to raise prices at the tap.”
What this all means is that on top of the collapsing economy and rising gas prices, as you raise your glass in your local pub, the bill will raise higher than ever. Online bloggers debate that a possible solution for pubs is to endorse legalizing marijuana. A more legal and sober solution is to stick to the simple everyday things you can do such as recycling an lowering the use of electricity and paper and plastic supplies to help reuse and to ulimatley lower the price and demand for oil and fossil fuels. Here’s a good tip, recycle the bottles from last night, and drink cheaper the next night.
Cheers’
Jeremiah
(Info and stats found at TheCampusWord.com)
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Cool, fun stuff. Keep ‘em coming.