Beer, Bars & Brewers #4

Let’s talk beer! Research shows that German beer in particular is high with Glyphosate (but really, what’s not?), BrewDog publishes its complete repertoire of recipes, and craft breweries are scrambling for hops after the draught of ‘15.

It’s not all sunshine and roses in beer world this week but hey, let’s just keep on keepin’ on.

High Levels of Glyphosate found in German Beer

A report released by the Umweltinstitut München (Environmental Institute Munich) details the levels of Glyphosate in Germany’s 14 most popular beer labels. Researchers found a certain level of the pesticide in every tested product. About Drinks has the complete list: Hasseröder Pils came in first with 29,74 μg/l (microgram per liter) and Augustiner Helles ranked the lowest at 0,46 μg/l. Glyphosate is said to possibly be carcinogenic however, one would have to consume “3,559 liters of beer/day over the course of a lifetime” to cause serious concern to an adult’s health.

Which is why the Lebensmittelwirtschaft e.V. is warning consumers about freaking out and painting a bad picture of German beer. One mustn’t forget that Glyphosate is found in more than just the wheat used in beer and that in general, we’re probably consuming a whole ‘lotta chemicals that we really should. Trying to control the amount of poison is our beer is not a bad idea, let’s just go ahead and have this rule of thumb apply to the global food industry.

BrewDog Publicizes Recipes

Last week Scottish brewing giant BrewDog released its entire back catalogue of recipes, which spans over almost ten years and includes more than 200 recipes. In a statement the brewers said “Many of the classic BrewDog beers were developed during our home-brewing days, and we still use a 50L system to develop new beers and new recipes here at BrewDog … With DIY Dog we wanted to do something that has never been done before as well as paying tribute to our home-brewing roots”.

A bold move but one that surely won’t make the sales number suffer, but further increase the public’s positive opinion of the Scots.

Craft Breweries Scramble for Hops after Poor Harvest

With a rise in craft breweries, so the demand for hops increase. Simple math. Kent, a southern British town known for its hops, is currently undergoing through a “supply crunch” as the “microbrewery explosion in the US and Europe” makes for an increasing demand that Kent is having a hard time keeping up with thanks to the drought of 2015. Kent isn’t alone in this though, CNBC quotes Barth-Haas, a leading German hops trader, saying “the 2015 hop crop will enter history books as one of Europe’s worst. With the crop 20 – 25% lower than the average harvest, traders had to renegotiate many of the European long-term contracts with their customers”. The problem that arises with this is that “established brewers that buy their hops on contract can ride through the current supply shortage, but the smaller craft brewers, which buy ‘on the spot’ market as well as those aspiring to enter the independent brewing sector, which do not have contracts to purchase hops, are struggling”.

The US especially has seen an increase in hops acreage over the last few years, which could in turn lead to a an oversupply of hops though “Scott Casey, analyst at brewing materials consultancy RMI Analytics, says: Craft beer is almost recession proof”. Interesting take that we’ll probably be able to watch come true (or not) over the next 10 years.