KEY POINTS:
Just as the festive season gets going, drinkers in the United States are finding their favourite beer suddenly more expensive or even, horrors, not available at all, The Economist reports today.
Hit by price increases and shortages, many breweries, particularly the small craft brewers and even smaller microbreweries, are being forced to raise prices, make do with modified recipes or shut off the spigots.
The humble hop is the problem.
Many farmers in the Pacific north-west, where America's hop production is concentrated, have turned to more profitable lines, especially corn, which can be made into ethanol.
The decrease in hop production, put at some 50 per cent over the past decade, has sent prices through the roof. Some smaller producers are going out of business while others are experimenting with new recipes, hoping their customers will adapt.
The hops shortage is only part of the problem, says The Economist.
Things are no better for barley, used to make the malt that yeast turns into alcohol. It too has been ploughed under in favour of corn. Not such a merry Christmas.
