You and I and everyone who reads blogs like this know it already: Craft brewers are trying many different ways to deal with the shortages of hops. Their—and, by extension, our—plight has even been examined in the mainstream media.

Well, now it’s serious. The issue has now been covered by that paragon of journalism for geeks: Wired.com.

Craft Brewers Reformulate Beer to Cope With Hop Shortage

The beer-brewing situation demonstrates how the global-commodity shortage is spilling over to affect diverse industries in unexpected ways. The hop shortage lives on the outer edges of a food crisis that’s prompted riots across the planet, and last month led U.N. Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon to implore the world’s governments to increase food production to stave off a 40 percent jump in the cost of staples.

While nobody in the craft-beer industry is going hungry, they are being forced to adapt. There’s no replacement for hops in beer — they give the brew its flavor. But other key ingredients are in short supply, as well. Malt, which comes from sprouted barley, produces the alcohol and body of beer — its prices have doubled along with hops. The price of rice, used by industrial brewers, has charted a similar course.

(via Boing Boing)