I’ve talked about the shortage of hops and barley a few times now, but it’s probably more interesting to hear about it from someone who knows about it firsthand. This article in Flavorpittsburgh.com tells the tale of a grim future for highly hopped beers if the trend continues. According to the brewer at Pittsburgh’s tiny East End Brewing Co., hop prices have quadrupled and the scarcity of hops may lead to reformulation of Big Hop, that brewery’s most popular brew, before summer’s end. I’m sure the same calculation is going on in a lot of microbreweries across the country.

I suppose the upside is that some of those musclebound beers I’ve written about in the past could be reformulated as well, but I fear it will come at the expense of the better hoppy beers. Time will tell. Meanwhile, if you’ve tried Big Hop let us know what you think.

image courtesy of East End Brewing Co.

Post from: EveryJoe

Beer prices on the rise

Wow, this is the second time I’ve written a nice thing about Boston Beer Company recently! The first time, I was thrilled to see Jim Koch taking over the old Rolling Rock brewery instead of building anew to expand capacity. Now they’ve decided to make hops available for brewers impacted by the shortage of hops. Information about the program is available on Boston Beer Company’s website. Now maybe they have some barley to spare as well.

image from wikipedia

Post from: EveryJoe

Brother, can you spare a hop?