So if you know anything of the craft and homebrewing community you know there is almost a panic in the minds of people. Generally it's a scarcity of hops and to a lesser degree malt. Europe had a poor crop year and with the current exchange rate with the dollar Europeans can get hops for a deal here. Add to that the current industry growth rate in the double digits and that some farmers are switching from barley to corn, you have all the elements to make everyone scared about getting necessary ingredients. After some consideration I don't think that this is a bad thing at all, I suspect 10-20 years from now the brewing community will see this time as when brewers stepped up and allowed innovation to shine.

It was the maltier tastes of Europe that informed the start of craft beer revolution, they told us in the dark days of beer in the 1970s that choice and flavor were out there in the world. Americans being true to our often contrary notion went in the opposite direction from our European cousins during the 1980s and 90s. This was especially true on the West Coast where getting big and bolder became not just a challenge, but the order of the day. In some sense that might be the craft brewing industries rebellious teenage years.

Hops have been vogue for a while but with the pending hop shortage, malt will begin to shine as well as the less traditional bittering and balancing agents. It's not to say high alpha and hoppy beers won't have a place and success, but just we will soon start to see a new round of experimentation.

This first round will be ingredients like heather tips, spruce and forgotten agents, some of which are already on the homebrewing shop shelf. What I am looking forward to seeing is the other ingredients that we wouldn't even consider today but wouldn't thinking of making some future style without it.

But with the farmers turn from barley to corn for ethanol, I suspect we will also see growth in the sugars we use to make our beers. Celiac suffering brewers are already ahead of us trying to work with sorgum in beers. While I have yet to meet anyone impressed with the beers yet, I see it that those folks are like the ones who started with the extract cans in the 1970s and will quickly make their way towards partial mash and allgrain brewing. They will find a way to make these beers truly shine and that day will arrive far more quickly than people suspect.

A quick look at Wikipedia yields a number of grains I have never heard of, but soon I am sure we will soon be quite familiar with some of them. From Africa there are Teff, Fonio and Millets. Emmer is from the fertile crescent the very home of brewing. Last from the other parts of the Americas we have Amaranth and Quinoa crops that have been staples for thousands of years. I don't doubt some homebrewers are already starting to look at one of these and pondering "what would I get if I brewed an ale with that."

Economic theory states that one of the possible reactions to scarcity is substitution. The current growth rates of 10% per year of craft brewing I don't see demand subsiding anytime time soon. So there will have to be another answer found and I think it's down the road of substitution. American brewers have proven if they can do anything it is innovate.

It's the end of the beers as we know it and I feel fine.