As the news recently announced an increase on grocery items and gas, beer taps may be on their way to being added to the list.

Both western Canada and the US have seen heatwaves this summer combined with labour shortages and supply chain issues have caused the price to produce a pint of beer to rise in recent months.

“It’s quite hard because at the same time there is so much competition right now for micro-breweries in Quebec,” said Gouin. “I would like to raise my prices, but, at the same time, I have to keep my sales going, so I’m crushed between the two,” said Renaud Gouin is co-owner of Avant-Garde craft brewpub in East Montreal.

According to Gouin, there are approx. 300 microbreweries in Quebec already struggling with staff shortages and raising their prices may be next.

Sylvain Charlebois, senior director at the agri-food analytics lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax, says the price of corn, wheat, barley and canola prices have all gone up, and that will affect how much it cost to create a quality IPA, lager or pilsner.

“Brewers aren’t immune to what’s happening and also so they are paying more for inputs as well,” he said.

Barley is essential to brewing beer and a Statistics Canada estimated yield analysis shows barley production dropping by around 27 per cent in 2021, joining canola, oats, wheat and other crops whose production is likely to significantly drop this year.

“If you go retail you’re likely still going to be asked to pay more for beer, but not as much as if you go to your favourite watering hole,” said Charlebois. “They are likely going to charge you more for two reasons. One, to make beer is costing more and just serve that beer to you is also costing them more money as well.”

“Prices will fluctuate from time-to-time, so we’re not going to run out of anything,” he said. “It’s just costing more for processors to get the ingredients they need to produce whatever they’re producting.”

Labour continues to be at the top of the list as the most worrisome cost for businesses,”That part is very hard to get staff especially for cooking and otherwise, it’s very hard to recruit,” he said. “The wages have gone up dramatically and we’ve had to adjust our price on the food cost. Everyone sees that right now, and I think it’s very problematic.”

Photo courtesy of Avant-Garde/Facebook