Beer getting more expensive

This story was originally covered by PRI’s The Takeaway. For more, listen to the audio above.

Beer drinkers may have noticed their favorite brews have been getting more expensive.

Some of the rise in prices can be attributed to the fact that hops — one of the key ingredients of beer — has been getting more expensive, too. Germany and Russia grow hops, and both countries have been experiencing shortages there recently. A full 25 percent of the hops in the world comes from the US, but the price of American hops has been going up, too. Louise Story, finance reporter for the New York Times, reports that, “a key storage facility for hops that was destroyed in Washington States a few years back.”

The rise in hops prices has been hurting microbrews the most. Small breweries have been getting more popular in recent years, and they tend to use more hops than the mass-production breweries like Anheuser-Busch.

Prices have been going up at the mass-production breweries, too, but that’s not because of the price of hops, according to Story. Companies like Anheuser-Busch grow much of their own hops, and they also use derivatives and futures trading to stabilize the price of their ingredients.

“It’s more likely that the price increase is being driven by the increase in the price of oil,” Story says, “and they’re suffering from the same thing that we all are suffering from at the gas pump.” Transporting ingredients to the factories, and shipping the beer all over the world requires oil. And the rising cost of oil may be translating to higher costs at the liquors store.

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“The Takeaway” is a national morning news program, delivering the news and analysis you need to catch up, start your day, and prepare for what’s ahead. The show is a co-production of WNYC and PRI, in editorial collaboration with the BBC, The New York Times Radio, and WGBH.