Another example of unintended consequences with the Federal mandate for ethanol. Specialty or craft beer brewers are being hit with 70% to 200% increases in the cost of hops.

Cost may make you cry in your beer

What is the price for America’s new emphasis on energy independence?
For beer drinkers, about a buck a six-pack.

Across the country, farm fields once used for growing hops and barley for beer are sprouting corn, which has become lucrative because of President Bush’s support of ethanol, a corn-based alternative fuel. And then, basic economics comes into play: With demand for hops and barley outstripping supply, the cost for those commodities goes up.

That means lovers of craft beers and microbrews may be seeing red or feeling nauseated — and that’s not the effect of one too many oatmeal stouts.

“What we like to brew is fullbodied beer, so we use tons more hops than the big guys do,� said Josh Osterhoudt, general manager of Bristol Brewing Co. in Colorado Springs.

Bristol raised its prices Feb. 1, by $1 per six-pack wholesale and 50 cents a pint at the brewery.

Osterhoudt said the price of hops, barley and grains jumped anywhere from 70 percent to 200 percent recently.

The price jump isn’t unique to Colorado. Small brewers across the country can’t negotiate long-term deals like major companies.

Government mandates and junk science, not energy independence are driving the increase. Ridiculous.

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