Impact of Global Warming on the Future of Beer.

[ChristinaS1]

Listened to this on the weekend:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/beer-shortages-could-be-a-result-of-climate-change-thanks-to-barley-crop-failures-1.4868096

The study says prices in Canada could double, but poor Europe may see prices rise seven fold! Not sure about Australia.

Cheers,

Christina. 

Edited July 8, 2019 by ChristinaS1

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

Its already too bloody expensive in Australia with the taxes we pay on it Christina. If it went to 100 a case from the current 50 i dare say there will be a lot more people on Coopers Forum discussing home brewing.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Some of them are already $100 a carton, pirate life springs to mind. Nice beer but not worth that price tag.

[Lab Cat]

We'll be impacted far more quickly with excess taxes. I'm just guessing, but Aus surely has a local supply of barley that they use anyway, or can fall back on.

[Olemate]

There is evidence here too Christina. Our Northern grape growers are slowly, but surely moving Southward for cooler climes. We were in Tasmania recently and learned of the influx of wine grape growers moving there, looking to escape the ever increasing temperatures up North. Fair to say that barley is more robust than grapes, but the signs are there.

Cheers

Mark

[Hairy]

I have looked into my future and see Homebrand Lager with 1kg white sugar.

[Yuley]

1 hour ago, Hairy said:

I have looked into my future and see Homebrand Lager with 1kg white sugar.

Thats a scary future... 

If this was the ad for Climate Change, everyone would believe it exists.

[Instigator]

I predict a run on brew fridges and temp controllers. Bottom falls out of the heat belt market. Lawnmower beers will reign supreme, and we'll tell our grandchildren how we used to drink something called "Stout" in cold weather.

Fortunately, a solar minimum is beginning, and plants love CO2, so the alarmist "if" and "could" language of articles like this will be mitigated for a decade or so. RDWHAHB.

[jackgym]

"......... that scenario predicts a 4 C to 5 C increase in global temperature."

Feel the crazy?

[Marty_G]

5 hours ago, Hairy said:

I have looked into my future and see Homebrand Lager with 1kg white sugar.

Brewed in an open FV covered by a tea towel with no temp control and  in the bottle after 5 days 

[Worthog]

6 hours ago, Olemate said:

There is evidence here too Christina. Our Northern grape growers are slowly, but surely moving Southward for cooler climes. We were in Tasmania recently and learned of the influx of wine grape growers moving there, looking to escape the ever increasing temperatures up North. Fair to say that barley is more robust than grapes, but the signs are there.

Cheers

Mark

Grape growing has gone stupid in NE Victoria too. Only because of the volume exported these days, particularly to the growing China market. Obviously the biggest increases will be in the cooler and hilly/mountainous climes.

Climate change has been a fact for milleniums and won't be the reason for price increases. As always supply/demand and government revenue requirements will be the driver of increased prices.

Cheers

Edited July 9, 2019 by Worthog

[Ocean's of Ale-]

So much barley is currently  being wasted on the creation of vb/xxxx/great northern/budwisser. 

 If it ever comes to rationing malt i hope barley crop growers prioritize craft brewers/home brews/ coopers & the black velvet Guinness. 

Surely a world without beer is the stuff of nightmares.

[Beerlust]

I have given this global warming thing considerable thought in recent times.

As the planet warms, it's melting the polar caps more & more each year, thus water levels are rising causing the land masses above sea level to shrink.

As usual the scientists over-think things. My solution to this is for breweries to use the increased water levels to make more beer, & for us as consumers to drink more beer to help the human race survive this cataclysmic tidal surge that threatens our very survival.

It's not rocket science. 

Cheers,

Lusty.

[porschemad911]

Aren't the bees disappearing too? Doesn't bode well for mead...

[Beerlust]

16 minutes ago, porschemad911 said:

Aren't the bees disappearing too? Doesn't bode well for mead...

No BS, plant a citrus tree or two in your yard space. Look for other plants that flower outside the warmer months.

There is literature that suggests bees hibernate during Winter as a general rule, but I've found they will continue to harvest & produce honey for their stocks & survival while there are flowering plants they can harvest from.

I would say we're pretty much in the middle of Winter now, & I still have bees regularly visiting my citrus trees that they have pollinated to ridiculous levels of flowering that has amazed family & friends that have seen the plants, for this time of year.

Every area is different, & I understand that, but these insects are very clever little buggars & adapt their regimes to their surroundings. So help their surroundings. 

Cheers,

Lusty.

[porschemad911]

22 minutes ago, Beerlust said:

No BS, plant a citrus tree or two in your yard space.

Yes, they love my kumquat tree! And my kumquat tree loves them too, judging by the gazillions of fruit my wife and little boy have been harvesting.

Cheers,

John

[Otto Von Blotto]

That's a great example of where armchair experts fail to understand the situation. They only ever look in their own backyard. Bee numbers might be the same in a given specific location as they've pretty much always been but it doesn't mean a thing when compared to the numbers across the whole planet. 

They do the same thing with the climate. Weather patterns in their location don't really change in a few decades so climate change is nonsense according to them. I've noticed differences in the weather over the last 20 years or so, winters used to be clear sunny days for 3 months, now we're getting rain every other week. Summers used to have thunderstorms on a weekly basis, I remember it well because they often occurred on Friday afternoons and ruined Saturday morning cricket. Now we're lucky to get one a month. Whether or not it's due to wider climate change or global warming I don't know and as such I wouldn't make some unfounded definitive statement either way. It's just what I've observed. 

[Ronnie Dale]

The vineyards are more expanding southwards than moving south.  Flavor of the Month.  Basically, they are grape farmers and follow the market.

Over the last few years we have built vineyards from Rutherglen to Mornington.  The Yarra Valley is growing rapidly with new vineyards or replacing old vineyards. 

I have been in Balnarring since March laying out a new vineyard. (I run the GNSS system to stake out for posts)  Some of the newer vineyards are close planted , rows 1.1 meter wide and little tractors 0.8 wide.  So they need the rows to be straight, no more tape measures and close enough.  Did one in Gisbourne, 0.8 metre wide rows, all hand worked vines.  I'll finish here around early September, move to Red Hill, for another one, then 2 more back in the Yarra Valley.

[der kleine Drache]

[Beerlust]

9 hours ago, der kleine Drache said:

I would suggest those nations get themselves a brewery or two & fast! 

[ChristinaS1]

On 7/9/2019 at 7:39 AM, Beerlust said:

I would say we're pretty much in the middle of Winter now, & I still have bees regularly visiting my citrus trees that they have pollinated to ridiculous levels of flowering that has amazed family & friends that have seen the plants, for this time of year.

Every area is different, & I understand that, but these insects are very clever little buggars & adapt their regimes to their surroundings. So help their surroundings. 

Cheers,

Lusty.

Just so you know Lusty, bees do not cause plants to flower, they only pollinate the flowers the plants produce. 

I totally agree with planting things that provide food for pollinators. Good to take a whole yard approach and plant a variety of things that flower in succession, so that they always have something to eat. Monoculture is bad for bees, as are many modern varieties of flowers and shrubs sold in gardening centres. Often the scent has been bred out of the old heritage varieties in favour of some other quality....A lot of flowers are also too deep for honey bee tongues, but they may still be good for native pollinators.

One thing they are advocating here is that if you have a yard, stop mowing 10% of the grass and let it grow wild, for the pollinators, but not many people are doing it yet.

We have long, cold winters here in Canada. Nowadays it is quite common to loose 50% of your hives over the winter. I understand that 30 years ago this percentage was much lower, for whatever reason; there are many theories. But whatever the reason, it is not a good trend. 

Cheers,

Christina.

Edited July 10, 2019 by ChristinaS1

[Hairy]

I think it depends on the area. 

Australia and Canada may have a reduced bee population but I went to an electronics store the other day and there were a heap of US Bees.

I’ll see myself out 

[ChristinaS1]

23 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

That's a great example of where armchair experts fail to understand the situation. They only ever look in their own backyard. Bee numbers might be the same in a given specific location as they've pretty much always been but it doesn't mean a thing when compared to the numbers across the whole planet. 

They do the same thing with the climate. Weather patterns in their location don't really change in a few decades so climate change is nonsense according to them. I've noticed differences in the weather over the last 20 years or so, winters used to be clear sunny days for 3 months, now we're getting rain every other week. Summers used to have thunderstorms on a weekly basis, I remember it well because they often occurred on Friday afternoons and ruined Saturday morning cricket. Now we're lucky to get one a month. Whether or not it's due to wider climate change or global warming I don't know and as such I wouldn't make some unfounded definitive statement either way. It's just what I've observed. 

I have seen a lot of changes in the weather up here in Canada as well. Winters in Ontario, where I lived most of my life, are much shorter and milder, which is a bad thing because insects which used to not be able to survive our winters are now able to, which changes the balance of everything.

Since 2009 I have lived in New Brunswick, which historically had cooler summers, with more rain than Ontario, and longer, more severe winters. The summer weather is changing, even in the short time I have been here: it rains less often, but harder, so it runs off instead of soaking in the ground. The St John River Valley, which floods every spring, is breaking old flood levels on a more frequent basis. After repeated, severe flooding the town my father-in-law grew up in has permanently abandoned its historic centre along the river and moved to higher ground. His parents old house has been bulldozed and the site is now just grass. We also had drought two years in a row, 2017 and 2018, which is highly unusual. A lot of fir trees couldn't take it and have died. Forestry is a major industry in New Brunswick and fir is a very important commercial species, used in building products and pulp and paper. Invasive pests and forest fires are also big problems here in New Brunswick and in British Columbia, on the west coast.

Christina.

[Beer Baron]

53 minutes ago, ChristinaS1 said:

One thing they are advocating here is that if you have a yard, stop mowing 10% of the grass and let it grow wild,

The Aussie snakes will love the long grass

[Otto Von Blotto]

It's definitely changing Christina, as is natural for the Earth, I guess the debate is over how much of it is human induced. I haven't really noticed much difference in the length or overall temperature of our winter and summer, but the weather itself definitely isn't the same as it was growing up. That happens though I guess. 

The one thing that gets me with the denier clowns though, is what they think is so bad or wrong about trying to do less environmental damage, regardless of whether or not it does anything about climate. 

And on the other side of the coin there have been a couple of protests in the inner city area here lately, holding up the whole city during peak hour on a Friday afternoon to protest against a coal mine that's already being built. A pointless exercise, and one that is highly unlikely to get many people on side. Anyone held up for ages will just see them as a nuisance and the message gets lost.