Bush is behind this, I just know it!

Bot

---------------------

Mounting cost of beer ingredients could send prices hopping
08:27 AM CDT on Saturday, October 27, 2007
JACKIE JOHNSTON/The Associated Press

SUNNYSIDE, Wash. – Fans of Snipes Mountain Brewery's cloudy Hefeweizen relish the subtle wheat flavor of the bright, summery brew, and, like beer drinkers everywhere, they know when their favorite brew tastes a little too hoppy or bitter.

Small, independent brewers like Terry Butler, brewmaster at Snipes Mountain Brewery in Washington state, have few choices: tinker with recipes for their increasingly popular beers and raise prices - perhaps as high as 10 percent. Connoisseurs could be in for a surprise this year, and they may not be alone.

A worldwide shortage of one key beer ingredient and rising prices for others could force small brewers from Australia to Oregon to tweak their recipes or experiment less with new brews.

And one other thing: Beer prices are likely to climb. How high is anybody's guess. Unlike their industrial rivals, craft brewers don't have the means to hedge against rising prices.

"I'm guessing, at a minimum, at least a 10 percent jump in beer prices for the average consumer before the end of the year," said Terry Butler, brewmaster at Washington's Snipes Mountain.

Sales have been relatively flat in recent years among the country's big three brewers – Anheuser-Busch Cos., Molson Coors Brewing Co. and SABMiller PLC unit Miller Brewing Co – while small, independent brewers have experienced tremendous growth.

The craft brewing industry experienced a 12 percent increase by volume in 2006, with 6.7 million barrels of beer. Sales among microbreweries, which produce less than 15,000 barrels per year, grew 16 percent in 2006.

Now the bright spot in the brewing industry is facing mounting costs on nearly every front:

• Fuel, aluminum and glass prices have been going up quickly over several years.

• Barley and wheat prices have skyrocketed as more farmers plant corn to meet increasing demand for ethanol and others plant feed crops to replace acres lost to corn.

• A decadelong oversupply of hops that had forced farmers to abandon the crop is gone, and harvests were down this year. In the U.S., which grows one-fourth of the world's hops, acreage fell 30 percent between 1995 and 2006.

Australia endured its worst drought on record. Hailstorms across Europe damaged crops. Extreme heat in the western U.S. hurt both yields and quality.

Big brewers can hedge against rising prices for raw ingredients and can negotiate better, longer-term contracts for ingredients, but smaller brewers are generally get whatever is left.

Snipes Mountain saw its barley malt prices grow from 10 percent to 15 percent this year, and the brewer paid $12.35 per pound for Cascade hops, far beyond the $5.60 per pound allotted last year.

Brewers at Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs, Colo., have already been doing some tinkering. Last year, a slim supply of bittering Hallertau hops forced them to substitute the Mount Hood variety, which slightly altered their three lagers: Alpine Glacier Lager, Butt Head Bock and Ornery Amber Lager.


JACKIE JOHNSTON/The Associated Press
During the last decade, a surplus forced farmers to grow crops other than hops, which gives beer a distinct bitterness.

Bah, beer is just pee water anyways.

If it was whiskey instead...

*****ing around with my fuel prices is one thing but when you mess around with my beer, that's a whole 'nother story!

Especially since it'e the good beer (micros) that are most affected.

__________________

1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

I don't drink beer anymore, so don't care too much about that. However, I bought my first tank full of diesel yesterday. Hoowee! $2.30 a gallon! Oh well, hopefully the mileage will be better than in my Lincoln.I'll find out this week.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

ARTIST: Charlie Ryan
TITLE: Hot Rod Lincoln

[As recorded by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen]

My pappy said, "Son, you're gonna' drive me to drinkin'
If you don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln"

Have you heard this story of the Hot Rod Race
When Fords and Lincolns was settin' the pace
That story is true, I'm here to say
I was drivin' that Model A

It's got a Lincoln motor and it's really souped up
That Model A body makes it look like a pup
It's got eight cylinders, uses them all
It's got overdrive, just won't stall

With a 4-barrel carb and a dual exhaust
With 4.11 gears you can really get lost
It's got safety tubes, but I ain't scared
The brakes are good, tires fair

Pulled out of San Pedro late one night
The moon and the stars was shinin' bright
We was drivin' up Grapevine Hill
Passing cars like they was standing still

All of a sudden in a wink of an eye
A Cadillac sedan passed us by
I said, "Boys, that's a mark for me"
By then the tail light was all you could see

Now the fellas was ribbin' me for bein' behind
So I thought I'd make the Lincoln unwind
Took my foot off the gas and man alive
I shoved it on down into overdrive

Wound it up to a hundred-and-ten
My speedometer said that I hit top end
My foot was glued like lead to the floor
That's all there is and there ain't no more

Now the boys all thought I'd lost my sense
And telephone poles looked like a picket fence
They said, "Slow down! I see spots!
The lines on the road just look like dots"

Took a corner, sideswiped a truck
Crossed my fingers just for luck
My fenders was clickin' the guardrail posts
The guy beside me was white as a ghost

Smoke was comin' from out of the back
When I started to gain on that Cadillac
Knew I could catch him, I thought I could pass
Don't you know by then we'd be low on gas

We had flames comin' from out of the side
Feel the tension, man, what a ride!
I said, "Look out, boys, I've got a license to fly"
And that Caddy pulled over and let us by

Now all of a sudden she started to knockin'
And down in the dips she started to rockin'
I looked in my mirror; a red light was blinkin'
The cops was after my Hot Rod Lincoln

They arrested me and they put me in jail
And called my pappy to throw my bail
And he said, "Son, you're gonna' drive me to drinkin'
If you don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln!"

i got some land here in iowa.i'd grow hops for em,just give me the seeds to get started!!