After work you may love cracking open a cold brew to relax and wind down from your hard day. Well now Biden is threatening that too as a new report shows beer shortages are right around the corner. It’s strange but we’re going to tell you why this is happening.
It’s going to be a lot harder to grab your favorite beer very soon.
According to Axios. Small, independent craft breweries are struggling with inflation and supply chain issues. “It’s become a struggle to keep the doors open,” one brewer recently told Bart Watson, an economist at the Colorado-based Brewers Association.
In the past, beer prices have risen less than those in the broader food and beverage market, but that may change as input costs rise – whether CO2 or grain.
The U.S. beer shortage looms with a gap in the carbon dioxide supply. Brewers are cutting back on carbon dioxide production due to natural contamination at the Jackson Dome, a Mississippi reservoir of CO2.
Beer producers across the country report production delays and are preparing contingency plans to switch to nitrogen. The Nightshift Brewery near Boston shut down a facility after being told their carbon dioxide supply is “cut for the foreseeable future, possibly more than a year.” Others are paying 3-4x more.
In the wake of the pandemic, the carbon dioxide shortage is the newest threat to the beer industry’s recovery.
The UK is also facing similar problems.
According to The Sun. CF Fertilizers has halted operations at its Billingham plant due to soaring energy prices, which could affect food supply and beer production.
A by-product of the firm’s production, CO2, is commonly used in beer to make it fizzy and in food packaging to keep food fresh. Additionally, it is used to humanely slaughter chickens and pigs
However, high natural gas and carbon prices have forced the factory, which supplies 40% of the country’s CO2, to close temporarily. WION has more.
For struggling pubs and breweries, Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said the timing could not be worse.
As the nation faced the worst CO2 shortage in over 40 years, experts warned that Christmas beer supplies would be affected.
It is estimated that as many as 400,000 UK businesses could fail if energy costs continue to rise. Food shortages across the country have been caused in part by spiraling energy costs.
It’s been a tough year for small, independent craft brewers. Inflation and supply chain issues have made it difficult to keep the doors open, and many brewers are expecting beer prices to rise faster than inflation in the broader food and beverage market. With so many factors conspiring against them, it may be hard to find your favorite craft brew soon. So next time you can’t find your go-to beer on the shelf, remember that Joe Biden is at least partly responsible.
