Price of Beer Going Up!

mountainrev said:

It seems the ethanol craze is going to raise the price of beer. Apparently many farmers are planting corn instead of barley right now: http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=73165

This will undoubtedly effect us homebrewers, as well, but probably not to the extent that it will impact retail prices. One more reason to justify our hobby.

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warped04 said:

Let me present an unlikely alternative. Since smaller farmers may actually start making money with the increase in the price of corn, we may see an increase in the number of farmers (if land is still available at a reasonable cost in the Midwest). This may actually help stabilize the prices.

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Bike N Brew said:

If anything related to corn farming were remotely related to market forces, this might be true. But corn (and ethanol) production are hugely subsidized (and tariff-protected) by the government. Corn farmers are guaranteed a minimum price per bushel...you can't get any more stable than that.

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Sean from New Hampshire said:

The government is ruining what could be one of the most important changes in fuel usage ever.

Why use corn?

Taken from Wikipedia:

"Switchgrass has the potential to produce the biomass required for production of up to 100 gallons (380 liters) of ethanol per metric ton.[4] This gives switchgrass the potential to produce 1000 gallons of ethanol per acre, compared to 665 gallons for sugarcane and 400 gallons for corn.[5]"


It's quite ironic isn't it?

Sean

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Sean from New Hampshire said:

Derry. You around here?

Sean

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