Hop Shortage, HomeBrewers Okay

It is a sad day indeed when you start to notice the price of your favorite beer begin to rise. It is even sadder when you know that it is going to get worse before it gets better.

Now every avid beer drinker is going to be affected by the hop shortage, in one way or another...be it your beer is a little pricier, or your beer is temporarily out of stock (God save us from such a day). So now is the time to start dabbling in the art of brewing your own beer. While brewers and micro-brewers will be grossly affected by this shortage, the home brewer is going to fare a little better. Since most of us brew in five gallon batches, the price of hops for this quantitatively small batch, considering the size of the batches for most brewers and micro-brewers, will not be that much higher than normal.

I would also like to take this opportunity to point out what the Boston Beer Co. is doing to help out the "little guy." Seen Through a Glass has an excellent article on exactly what Jim Koch is doing to help out other breweries that are feeling the hop shortage. The article is Hey , Craft Brewers: Who's Your Daddy?