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Hops Headache - Beer Prices Increase
Hops Headache - Beer Prices Increase - Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 4:59PM EST
Reported by: Laurie Monteforte
Thursday, Apr 10, 2008 @04:59pm EST
TANNERSVILLE - Weekend nights could be getting a lot more expensive for beer drinkers. The price of a key ingredient could leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
A worldwide shortage of hops, combined with high demand for beer means you could be paying more for a night out.
When Tim Phillips, the Brewmaster at Barley Creek Brewery, pours hops into the machines he might as well pour in cash. He said, "Where we used to pay three to six dollars for a pound of hops has now gone up to fifteen to thirty dollars a pound."
That's a hangover headache size price because of a worldwide hops shortage. Phillips explained, "There was floods in England, hail storms in Idaho, Germany took out a whole region. There was also a fire at a warehouse in Europe."
Hops take away sweetness and are especially important to some of the micro brews made in Tannersville - drinks like India Pale Ale - it has two pounds of hops in every batch.
The hop heavy ale is Ed Farnack's favorite. He described it as, "Hoppy, bitter, on the bitter side, but still smooth, nice head on it."
Even though the price of hops has more than tripled, Barley Creek says you can toast to the fact their prices will stay the same.
They also won't have to reduce the amount of hops they use because they stocked up when they heard a shortage could be on the way. "We were pretty much up on the game so we pretty much stayed ahead of the game luckily," said Phillips.
So it looks like Barley Creek will get through the hops shortage without changing the price or quality of the local brew.
There's also a shortage of another key beer ingredient - barley. Farmers plowed under hops and barley fields to make room for corn that's used to produce ethanol for fuel. | |
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