Climate Change Is Now Coming for Your Beer

If you think climate change news can't get any worse, hold our beer. A new study published in Nature Communications found that hops grown in Europe are seeing a decline in both quality and quantity, which will affect both the taste and cost of beer within the next 25 years. "Beer drinkers will definitely see the climate change, either in the price tag or the quality," says Miroslav Trnka, a co-author on the paper, per the Guardian. "That seems to be inevitable from our data." Hops flavor most varieties of beer and come from a fussy plant that doesn't react well to changes in light, heat, or water. Rising temperatures and drought conditions have already put farmers on notice.

"Growers of hops will have to go the extra mile to make sure they will get the same quality as today, which probably will mean a need for greater investment just to keep the current level of the product," says Trnka. The study estimates that by 2050, hops yields will drop by 4% to 18%, and the amount of alpha acids in the hops, which give beer its taste and smell, will decrease by 20% to 31%. Major European producers of hops, like in Germany, are already seeing double-digit drops in the crop, which has seen higher demand with the rise of craft beers and breweries.

"Craft brewers love hops with their IPAs," Chuck Skypeck of the Brewers Association tells the Washington Post. "We've subsequently seen nascent hop-growing areas really struggle because they're not meeting those conditions." So what about hops harvested stateside? The low humidity in Washington state's Yakima Valley, where most hops are grown, creates an ideal condition to grow the plant. The jury is still out on how climate change will affect hops crops there, but the last few summer yields haven't been great. (An Illinois brewery rejected any connection to new "Woke-Free" beer).