Crying In Your Beer Over Its Price

Rising Costs Of Ingredients And Transporting It Being Reflected; Some Consumers Changing Habits

(CBS)  Champagne taste on a beer budget?

Think again!

Just like the cost of food, some beer prices are skyrocketing, and you can expect to pay more for your favorite brew this summer, reports The Early Show consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen.

"It's never been this bad," observed Eric Ottaway, general manager of the Brooklyn Brewery, which makes several craft beers, a sector of the beer industry that's been hardest-hit.

"I've had to raise prices," Ottaway says. "We took the biggest increase we've ever taken here at the company this year."

Brooklyn Brewery has raised prices 10 percent -- translating into $1 more a six-pack.

"In the beer world," he explains, "that's a gigantic increase. Normally, we raise prices three-four percent, but a dollar is a gargantuan amount."

The price of beer is going up because it now costs more to make it, for several reasons, Koeppen points out.

First, high gas prices make it more expensive to haul beer.

And there's a shortage of beer's main ingredients. The cost of malted barley is has doubled, and hops have more than hopped -- they've skyrocketed some 500 percent.

"In 2008," Ottaway says, "it will cost us about a million more dollars to make the same beer we made in 2007."

Even large breweries, such as Anheuser Busch, are feeling the pinch. The maker of Budweiser says the increased cost of its ingredients has lead to price hikes on its beers.

"The situation with ingredients is not going to abate anytime soon," predicts Benj Steinman, publisher of a beer industry newsletter, Beer Marketer's Insights. "It will continue to exert pressure on pricing for the foreseeable future."

Steinman says, in some markets, such as Florida, California and Arizona, consumers are changing their drinking habits: "Some people are switching to lower-priced brands, because of the economy."

But, says Koeppen, even with price increases, consumers continue to throw them back.

"We're actually very happy that, despite all the economic turmoil, people are still buying beer. We say that, when you're happy you drink and when you're sad you drink, but either way, you're still drinking!"

The Labor Department says the average price of beer has gone up about four percent -- that's in stores and in bars and restaurants, as well.

The big breweries are weathering the storm, Koeppen adds, but "the little guys," that can't get the ingredients, are having a tougher go of it, and, "The some of big guys are actually releasing some of their supplies of hops and malted barley to help them survive."

Imported beers, by and large, hasn't seen the price hits that domestic suds have, due to the dollar's exchange rates.

[yj5164535]

in CHINA(PR),every bottle beer costs almost 1USdoller,and the prise''s going up,but it''s euro2008 time,so beer is unresistable

[DCropp]

Start home brewing.

I can make 2 cases of quality beer around $30-35 depending on style. Friends prefer my home brew to anything from the store.

Switch to all grain brewing and you can reduce cost even more.

[carlylaine]

I say...can the beer...smoke pot. If all beer drinkers riled up we could force the government to legalize it...but then they''d just screw that up too. I say smoke pot ilegally...and stop drinking beer...it''ll kill you. How many people do you know who has died from pot? NONE?

[mufuart]

I''m a "bornagain" type Christian, but My God helps me acquire all the desires of my heart, meaning that, if I''m on a budget, God helps me find the very best that I can buy for the money that I have, and that includes booze. By the Holy Spirit, God leads me to "da place where it be at". mmmmmmmm...

[element51]

The religious right''s attitude about everything has always confused me. Back in the day I used to see some of the so called "rightious" out partying their arses off on Saturday night and on Sunday they would have their arses parked in the front row of church. I started to wonder about the whole concept of "religion" and became agnostic. It''s Pasquals Wager. Do you bet on the non existacne of God and hope you''re right or do you hedge you bet and pretend to believe just in case he is? Back to beer. Four bucks a gallon for gas is terrible but 3 bucks for a beer is a travesty. Is there no justice in this world? Maybe McCain should base his campaign on keeping beer costs down. He''d win in a landslide.

[magoo2u1]

"The religious right''''s attitude to alcohol has always confused me "

Me too since distilling hadn''t been invented when the bible was written.

[davelangton]

Beer is gods way of telling us that he loves us and wants us to be happy. It also helps with that ''go forth and multiply'' edict.
If the baby jesus (yeah, right) is crying over beer, I suspect he probably just spilled his.

[mufuart]

It had been a few months since I had stopped by my favorite hamburger/beer place in Pasadena, CA, and ordered my usual, icecold $10 double-pint tall Guinness, and then the waitress said, "It''s $12.50".

[madeupnews]

If you drinks 6 Budweisers quickly and urinate it back into bottles, you can relabel them and sell them as PBR.

[displeased]

All this beer talk has made me thirsty. I''m going to go home and have a Magic Hat. You won''t have to worry about me depleting any of your PBR or Budweiser supplies!

[dmorg4c]

looks like its going to cost a lot more to get a DWI
I was going to get one tonight but i cant afford enough beer! JK;-)

[montanaman9]

PBR me ASAP!

[usbrit-2009]

soccermom, he must be blubberin away from the beer I''''ve drained over the years. Why do you refer to him as the BABY Jesus, didn''''t he ever grow up? Maybe your confusing him with Peter Pan.

Posted by PVperson

The religious right''s attitude to alcohol has always confused me - after all it was Jesus who turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana wasn''t it? Since weddings were a multi-day affair back then, he must have happily approved of a whole bunch of wine-swillin'' even before his contribution.

BTW I''m sure gopsoccermom is a joke. Sometimes funny but definitely one-track.

[omega39-2009]

Oh NO what will the NASCAR fans do now that beer is so expensive, start huffin Paint ?

Posted by acolton1 at

What will all of us do now to forget the high fuel/food prices?

[pvperson]

soccermom, he must be blubberin away from the beer I''ve drained over the years. Why do you refer to him as the BABY Jesus, didn''t he ever grow up? Maybe your confusing him with Peter Pan.

[mcv57]

Hmmmm, day-sha-voo . . . back in the Great Depression many songs were written about this same reality: Men were so broke, they couldn''t afford to get drunk. Days of Prohibition has returned.

[displeased]

The baby Jesus cries over every beer can opened.
Posted by gopsoccermom

Good! Maybe your baby Jaysus will wise up and find more important things to cry about.

[displeased]

People should smoke pot instead. Cost wouldn''t be an issue if the government would let us grow our own.

And I agree with ladyraestewa. American beers are watered down. It''s worth the extra $ for a good Belgium beer.

[jboxton]

Heheheh...Budweiser probably uses as much hops in a whole batch of their *** that Dogfish Head or Alesmith (or any other good beer, for that matter) use in one bottle of their great beers. Oh, I am assuming the "gopsoccermom" is a joke.

[ladyraestewa]

What is sad is a lot of those people who are complaining are actually drinking water in a can, Buttwhipper, Coors, Miller Lite! What a waste of money. Life is too short to drink c r a p p y beer!