Minnesota craft brewery industry worried about impact of 25% steel, aluminum tariffs
The president's new 25% tax on foreign steel and aluminum is designed to get people to buy American-made, but it's expected to drive up costs on your next car, new homes and possibly even local craft brews.
Part of Minnesota's heart is its nearly 200 craft breweries.
"Brewers are the masters of the pivot. Constantly having to deal with different challenges," Bob Galligan, who works with the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild, said.
The Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild says the next pivot on tap could be because of the new tariffs.
"The tariffs are going to be throwing off a lot of money to this country," President Trump said.
The tariffs could be a buzzkill for places like La Doña Cerveceria, which uses aluminum cans for 40% of what they produce, with the other 60% mainly going in steel kegs.
"Everything's kind of up in the air," Dicky Lopez, the head brewer for La Doña Cerveceria, said. "You just wake up and just wonder what's going on here."
So the haze caused them to take proactive measures.
"We ordered ahead knowing it was going to go into place," Lopez said.
La Doña says trends like Dry January, the decrease in popularity for drinking as a whole, but also a rise in prices of their cans from their supplier leading up to the tariff implementation, has caused their supply to be a little bit lower.
"No brewery wants to increase the prices on anything," Galligan said.
As for solutions, the industry hops to each other.
"We've been in this together forever. I got started at Surly. Just from there, learning from other brewers, it's a competition," Lopez said. "If we make better beer, everybody makes better beer."
