Water Shortages and Heat Threaten Beer Ingredients
With St Patrick’s Day this week, millions of Americans are raising a glass. Beer remains the country’s most popular alcoholic drink with more than 6 billion gallons consumed each year. However, water shortages and rising temperatures linked to the climate crisis are placing significant pressure on beer’s essential ingredients.
Deschutes Brewery and the Use of Kernza Grain
At Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon, beer is either stacked high in warehouse rows or moving rapidly down a canning line, assembled into 12-packs. Inside the large cellars, enormous 6,000-gallon tanks hold the latest batches in progress.
Inside one of those tanks, an unusual ingredient is brewing. The secret is a grain called Kernza, a perennial wheatgrass known for its slightly nutty flavor and climate-friendly characteristics. Deschutes Brewery partnered with the outdoor clothing brand Patagonia to create a new beer using this grain.
When asked about customer reactions, brewer Ben Kehs laughs:
“They say what’s Kernza?”
Kernza has deep roots that sequester carbon from the atmosphere and require less water. It also reduces tilling and fuel use since it does not need to be replanted annually. Kernza serves as an alternative to barley, which, along with hops and water, constitutes beer’s three core ingredients.
Regarding which ingredients face climate threats, Kehs explains:
“All of them in one degree or another I would say.”
These threats include drought, extreme heat, and wildfires.
Climate Impact on Hops in the Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest exemplifies these challenges, producing roughly 75% of the country’s hops. Hops are the delicate flowers that impart beer’s flavor and aroma and are particularly sensitive to environmental changes.
In Washington state’s Yakima Valley, Ryan Christian oversees hops research at Yakima Chief Hops, a grower-owned global hops supplier. When asked if beer’s future depends on hops, Christian responds without hesitation:
“Hops are integral to beer, so absolutely.”
However, cultivating hops during hot, dry summers depends on irrigation sourced from snowmelt in the Cascade Mountains. As the climate warms, spring snowpack is rapidly declining. Scientists project a potential 75% reduction by the end of the century, threatening a vital water source for farmers.
Christian notes the severity of the situation:
“This is now heading into a potential fourth year of consecutive drought that hasn’t happened in the past. Drought is normal. The frequency is abnormal.”
Research and Innovation to Sustain Beer Production
At Yakima Chief Ranches’ laboratory, researchers are working intensively to develop drought- and disease-tolerant hop varieties, aiming to ensure that innovation keeps pace with climate change.
From experimental grains like Kernza to more resilient hop varieties, brewers and farmers are actively adapting to protect the future of the United States’ favorite beverage.
This article is produced by an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report on the facts about our changing climate and its effects on people’s lives.
