No Free Beer Here; Price of Your Favorite Brew Going Up

Due to a shortage of a variety of supplies, the price of beer is expected to increase soon. Some of the hard-to-find elements aren't a new development, but a report in the Star Tribune indicates that some brewers have taken the hit on the higher costs. Those extra expenses may now be moving on to the consumers.

Apparently when the pandemic began, and we couldn't go to bars and restaurants, we bought more beer at the store in order to indulge at home. The story indicates, "There weren't enough aluminum cans and glass bottles to package this extra beverage volume, so packaging prices soared."

Add to that, now prices have gone up for barley and trucking, and, "Something has to give," according to Bart Watson, chief economist of the Brewers Association, a national organization.

Indeed Brewing in Minneapolis recently bumped up their prices. CEO Tom Whisenand said, "We recently did price increases to help cope with this, but the increases are not nearly enough to cover the cost increases we're seeing."

He added, "It has been a stress on our business to have so much of our business in cans, and that's led to a lot of these issues in the supply chain."

The Star Tribune states, "As bar closed and consumers took more beverages home during the pandemic, liquor store sales grew 25-percent from 2019 to 2021, according to federal data."

Not only small brewers, but also large producers are increasing their prices.

At least one expert thinks consumers will continue to purchase alcohol at the higher prices. Scott Scanlon a beverage expert at a Chicago marketing firm says, "It's that affordable indulgence. This is the product that people are not going to want to give up."

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