A couple of weeks ago Tom Flores, the brewmaster at Brewer’s Alley stopped into our F.O.A.M. meeting to let us sample their Kölsch, which they’re now also bottling. (They’ve been bottling their pilsner for quite some time.)

He also let us know that we would start seeing rising prices for supplies. Malting barley as well as hops are in rather short supply. Granted, at the volume that homebrewers buy the price will be negligible at best, but that he’d already been having trouble even securing malt and hops, much less paying more. He said that for some varieties there just aren’t any available. Fortunately, there are some new varieties coming online that he’s experimenting with. (One of the benefits of being a craft brewer.)

Still, prices are going up for supplies, so the downstream consumer (that’s me) is going to see prices go up. The giants won’t be too bad off, since they contract for their supplies for years in advance and just buy so much. They also have enough money that they can probably absorb the extra cost, meaning a 30-pack of cans will probably cost the same.

The smaller guys are the ones who will feel it. Considering the craft beer scene is rife with “extreme” beers with many times more hops (by volume) than industrial-brewed light lagers. Economies of scale are working against them. It would be awful if some small brewers just couldn’t produce their beers or, perhaps worse, had to raise prices so much that sales suffer and result in a cash-crunch on the other end.

Why? Well, the big hops warehouse fire last year didn’t help, nor did some fires at a coupld of hop kilns. Many people are also blaming the focus on corn-based ethanol as an alternative fuel. Farmers who would have planted hops (and barley) are instead getting more money with corn. Not to mention the disease- and pest-fighting properties of corn versus hops make it a “safer” way to go. And let’s not forget the record weakness of the U.S. Dollar. None of this is new news, however.

Of course, if you’ve spent any time at all reading beer blogs this comes as no surprise. It seems like everyone is talking about it. A quick search on the Beer Blog Search Engine for “hops shortage” reveals quite a few. Here’s a sampling:

• Lew Bryson – Seen Through a Glass: Problems with the hops crop: the latest word
• Tom Cizauskas – Yours for Good Fermentables: more on hops cost, shortage
• Roger Baylor – The Potable Curmudgeon: “US barley acreage has declined to record low levels.”
• Eric Hebert – The Cure For What Ales You: The Cost of Beer is Dramatically Increasing
• Jay Brooks – Brookston Beer Bulletin: Shuck and Jive
• Monday Night Brewery: Shortages galore
• What’s On Tap: Hop Shortage? Say It Ain’t So!

Update: Trouble brewing for small beer makers over hops shortage (AP)