Biofuels boom causing some to cry in their beer

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1208&u_sid=2357535

Published Sunday | April 1, 2007
Biofuels boom causing some to cry in their beer
BY JOSEPH MORTON
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU


WASHINGTON - Biofuels such as ethanol may help address the energy needs of a gas-guzzling society, but they also are helping to drive up prices for beer-guzzling bar patrons.

Brewers large and small are raising their prices, or thinking about doing so, in response to increased costs that include higher barley prices. They fret about what the future might hold if current trends continue.

The connection between fuel supplies and tailgate parties goes like this:

Spurred by taxpayer-supported incentives, ethanol plants that turn corn into fuel are popping up all over. The increased demand for corn has caused prices to rise. That affects other feed grains such as barley, commonly used in the production of beer.

In some areas, the connection comes from barley farmers switching directly to growing corn.

A bigger problem, however, is that corn and barley both can be used to feed livestock.

As feed prices rise, farmers find the gap closing between the money they make from easier-to-grow, lower-quality varieties of feed barley and the high-end malting barley sought by brewing operations.

Breweries then have to pay more to persuade farmers to grow the malting barley. The effect of higher barley prices is showing up in Nebraska and Iowa.

Thunderhead Brewery in Kearney, Neb., recently raised its prices for wholesalers for the first time in years, and the Upstream Brewing Co. in Omaha plans to raise its retail prices by about a quarter a pint in the coming months.

Both brewers pointed to higher barley costs as the reason for the price increases and described ethanol growth as a contributing factor.

For example, Upstream has seen an 18 percent jump in what it pays for barley, said brewmaster Zac Triemert. "That's just a huge jump in raw materials cost," Triemert said.

Barley also is used in the production of certain kinds of spirits, so it also could affect the Upstream's new venture - it's building the first distillery in Nebraska since prohibition.

Omaha's Dundee Dell also is keeping a close eye on the situation with barley, which is used in the making of single-malt scotches featured at the bar.

The scotch market takes longer to feel the effects from barley shortages, said Monique Huston, manager of the tavern, but they will arrive in the coming years.

"It's really going to affect us and anybody else that's a scotch bar," Huston said.

FULL story at link.

[Shallah Kali]

1. Maybe when beef and beer go up in price the average personwill finally notice the state of the world

you can't have gas guzzlers without fuel. running out of oiL? turn grain into fuel. Run out of grain for beer, liquor and meat? what will they try to jeryrig to substitue next?