https://earther.gizmodo.com/drink-beer-while-you-can-still-afford-it-1829754901
[quote]The study expects future yields of barley, beer’s key ingredient, to drop from 3 to 17 percent worldwide due to extreme heat and drought events by 2099. Depending on where you live, beer prices could spike in those years as a result, from 52 percent to more than 600 percent.
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2099, no worries here!
One can hope that plant breeding can help with drought resistant crops, and crops that can be grown in new areas.
Germany had a poor harvest of wheat and barley this year. It was really dry there in August. Some parts had not had rain since the beginning of April. They are to start having some rain this week.
Yeah, my yields will be down by then too. But.
There should be plenty of good malting barley from Greenland by then at least. And hops! Think how ideal the daylight hours are there in season…
Sorry for the gallows humor.
I have occasionally mused about how much CO2 brewing produces, from fermentation as well as energy production, and what some future, low-carbon brewing might be like. I imagine something mashed (can’t help it) but not boiled (like original Berliner Weiße) would save energy. Yeasts that require no temperature control. Everything old new again. Or maybe entirely new processes will be developed to reduce the energy demands of mashing, boiling and fermentation (some are already being kicked around.) But. Still need agricultural products in the first place.
Drink 'em if you got 'em.
(I’m really depressed and need a beer now.)
It was long ago when Henny Penny declared that the sky was falling in. It hasn’t yet and likely won’t in our lifetime.
By the time 2099 hits, each of us will either be dead, or sorted by social classes into the “haves” and “have-nots”. I intend to be dead, and prior to that, one of the “haves”. My kids are bright and should be okay as well. If they were morons, I might be a little more worried, maybe. But of course, when we’re dead we won’t really care.
I read about this report in the NYT. The motivation behind the study was basically to illustrate that not only will the obvious poor people in poor countries be displaced and otherwise affected, but that even the “haves” will be affected, by, e. g., this impending beer crisis. (Tell them their beer is going away, you’ve got their attention.) The researchers coined a term I kind of like for the likes of beer, and coffee, and other such products likely to be affected similarly: “luxury essentials.” Meaning, you don’t really need them to survive, but if you’re rich enough to live in the developed world, you really do need them.
I’m banking on the premise that there will always be enough beer to satisfy the people still alive.
Agreed. History shows that this is the case.
Especially if we start stockpiling beer and eliminating the competition now… It’s the beerpocalypse!
So the more I read the worse this looks. The “study” I mean. Not only did they set out to find exactly what they did – a probability that beer will get scarce and expensive – all hoping to scare people in rich and influential countries into taking action on climate change, but: They are also under the impression that Ireland and the Czech Republic are rich and influential countries.
I saw this in the news this AM. Appealing to beer drinkers to assist in correcting climate change is probably not the best use of their resources.
I planted winter rye as a cover crop in my garden. Maybe I should learn to malt rye.
Doesn’t matter because we’ll all be drinking Brawndo by then anyways
What’s more, the obvious bias in their methods will give ammunition to those who don’t believe in science. And still the best they could do was a result predicting the least inconvenience for the countries that could do the most. I’m not much of a soccer fan, but think that’s called “scoring an own goal.”
Not really sure that matters, it’s not like people have listened to the science before.
Jean Van Roy at Cantillon says climate change is already affecting his ability to brew lambic. Warmer weather means the cool season they need to spontaneously cool is getting shorter and they either have to brew less or brew more frequently.
All I’m going to say is this: threads like this cause my tongue to bleed. The proximal cause is biting it. The distal is not wanting to get banned for making people mad over politics.
Thank you.
I’m concerned about climate’s effects on agriculture in general, but not worried about beer. If barley prices go up, there’s plenty of land growing surplus corn and wheat that farmers would love to plant barley on, and even if barley went the way of the dodo bird I’m sure us resilient homebrewers would take it in stride with wheat beers and adjuncts.
I full agree and request this be closed. Whether wittingly or unwittingly, this thread likely baits people to speak their mind on a subject (politics) which is not in the best interest of the forum. Unless we are going to welcome ALL political views. Even then, that’s not what most of us are here for.
