Scene: The local liquor store.
You: Wearing a cloth mask and the hollow-eyed look of five straight months in lockdown. It鈥檚 Friday鈥攁nd . You鈥檝e loaded up on hand sanitizer and ventured out with your heart set on bringing home a few cases of liquid joy. (Which is what you鈥檝e taken to calling beer recently. You make a note to talk to your therapist about this next week.)
And then you see something that makes you do a double take. Fat Tire costs how much? One hundred dollars? That can鈥檛 be right!
Narrator: It was right.
We interrupt all the totally terrible headlines to bring you yet more bad news: climate change is still happening, and it鈥檚 not going to be good for anyone who likes beer. Why? Because beer relies on agricultural goods听such as barley and hops. And agriculture is likely to be severely impacted by longer droughts, stronger storms, and warmer overall temperatures. For International Beer Day, New Belgium Brewing is shocking us all out of our COVID-induced climate complacency by jacking up the price of its flagship ale听to $100鈥攚hat it estimates a six-pack will cost in 2070 due to climate change. (The calculation听is based on a 2018 report published in the online journal听.)听
The price听gouging is just for one day, and only in select markets. Also, if you actually ring up a six-pack, you鈥檒l still be charged the normal price because, legally,听beer companies cannot set prices for retailers. But the stunt is supposed to give you sticker shock in order to start a conversation鈥攕ignage听in听stores,听New Belgium says, will听note听the beer鈥檚 one-day price increase, advising customers that they鈥檒l need to get used to it听as the new normal if they don鈥檛 act.
The price increase is also听part of a PR announcement that Fat Tire is now carbon-neutral. According to the company, its听ubiquitous amber ale is the first nationally distributed beer to use no fossil fuels in the brewing process. By 2030, New Belgium hopes all of its beers will be carbon-neutral.听
CEO Steve Fechheimer听says that he hopes the $100 price tag will be jarring enough to make people want to act鈥攊n this case, to save our beer. Although being carbon-neutral has been in the works for years, and the $100 six-pack idea predates the pandemic, Fechheimer says the current crisis in this country has made the company鈥檚 campaign feel more relevant than ever. 鈥淲e鈥檙e in the middle of a huge disruption. The pandemic听has been a huge change to how we all live our lives. But we believe that climate change more broadly is going to bring much bigger economic pain,鈥 he says. The difference, of course, is that climate change is the slow boiling of the frog. Fechheimer says he听hopes that听seeing exorbitant six-packs will be the visual cue many of us need to get up and out of that ever warming water.听
He also acknowledges that while putting solar panels on a brewery is a good start, it鈥檚 not the broad, systemic reform we鈥檙e going to need to fight climate change worldwide.听Action from individuals and听private companies alone can鈥檛 save us. It鈥檚 great to drink carbon-neutral beer, but we need sweeping legislative changes to halt climate change. New Belgium says that it鈥檚 involved in lobbying efforts with听, and while its new website, , provides ideas for how to get involved with combating climate change, it鈥檚 frustratingly neutral. It just suggests voting鈥攚ithout calling out the politicians who have refused to move the needle on this issue听or lauding those who have.
Breweries are听already feeling the effects of climate change. In the past few years, New Belgium has dealt with freezes hitting citrus groves, driving up prices for crops like grapefruit. It鈥檚 also dealt with flooded-out barley fields and hops ruined by hail.
Gayle Goschie, a fourth-generation hop farmer in Oregon, can personally attest to the changes she鈥檚 seeing on her land. One difference she鈥檚 noted in recent years is that winters are no longer as cold. 鈥淭he accumulation of days below freezing is not the same as it was 10 or 15 years ago,鈥 and that confuses overwintering bines, she says (hops grow听on bines, not vines). When spring arrives, some varieties can be slow out of the gate. 鈥淚t鈥檚 almost like they听haven鈥檛 had a good sleep,鈥 she explains.听That means a lower hop yield on harvesting day.
When you purhcase听ingredients in the quantities that New Belgium does, small changes in cost become big budget problems. Fechheimer says that often he hears smaller听companies complaining听that they can鈥檛 afford to go green, or that legislation like the Green New Deal听is too expensive. 鈥淭he thing I always stress is that climate change is going to most impact small- and medium-size businesses,鈥 he says. That鈥檚 because the company that buys 100,000 cases of oranges pays more per case than the one buying one听million cases. Furthermore, the smaller company is also less likely to have big cash reserves on hand to cover those increased ingredient costs.听听听
With its purchase last year by Lion Little World Beverages, which is part of food and beverage conglomerate Kirin, New Belgium certainly has more resources than many small brewers to weather the economic uncertainties of climate change. But that really isn鈥檛 what Fechheimer worries about at night. In fact, he鈥檚 not even worried about the price of beer. Instead, he fears听that low-income Americans might struggle to buy basic groceries in 2070. If beer costs $100 per six-pack, what will everything else cost?听
We don鈥檛 yet know the answer to that question. But what we do know from living through the current听global crisis is that we all need to think about how we can work together to avert the next one.