JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Headed into the holiday weekend one bar-be-que staple will cost more: beer. According to the Consumer Price Index, the cost of beer has gone up almost six percent since April of last year.
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It’s not just inflation fueling the hike. Beer makers said fires, shipping, and production costs are to blame for the increase. It’s all forcing brewers- big and small- to get creative, tighten their belts, and make changes.
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One of those changes is also a less palatable price tag for beer drinkers like Kris Eaton. “At the bars,” he said, “it is a lot more expensive. But it’s expensive to buy at the stores too.”
Eaton said he will spend the extra money and stay on budget. “I’m not drinking nearly as much,” he admitted, “But, you gotta survive out here.” Those suds haven’t seen such a sharp increase in cost since the 90′s. Brewers like Wicked Barley’s Mason Leisure said trying to balance the books has never been so challenging.
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He said, “Everything, the price of it, like just the base ingredients has gone up exponentially. Just the grain itself has been almost 100% increase in the past few years.” The cost of hops has jumped, too. Maggie Elliot with Hop Growers of America said thanks to a heat wave in 2021 and a wet 2022, the hops capitol of the country in Yakima Valley, Washington has had back-to-back below normal harvests.
“It means that there’s less supply,” said Elliot, “And so if the demand stays consistent, then the price will rise.” Which is exactly what brewers have seen happen. Those costs affect everyone, from big producers like Anheuser-Bush InBev to local craft breweries like Wicked Barley.
Leisure said, “It’s definitely been more of a thought and a conversation in the past probably six to 12 months than we’ve had since we opened seven years ago.”
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Brewing up a solution to those rising costs isn’t so simple. Leisure said they’re working to streamline the process by making ingredients go further and being more efficient. But the buck stops somewhere. He said at some point, the price gets passed along to the drinker. “We’re not trying to price gouge anybody,” said Leisure, “But we’ve still got to be able to pay the employees, the rest of the staff, and all that as well.”
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He’s not alone. In fact, most of the craft brewers Action News Jax called around the city have raised prices in the last two years. Leisure said Wicked Barley customers have been understanding of that, but nationally, not so much. Overall, beer sales dropped three percent last year.
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