Saving the pint: behind the race to climate-proof beer in the US | US news
With St. Patrick’s Day this week, millions of Americans are raising a glass. Beer remains the nation’s most popular alcoholic beverage, with more than 6 billion gallons consumed each year. But from water shortages to rising temperatures, the climate crisis is putting pressure on beer’s most essential ingredients.
At the Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon, beer is either stacked in rows of warehouses or barreled down a canning line and assembled into packs of 12. Inside the cavernous cellars, enormous 6,000-gallon tanks hold the last batches in progress.
But inside one of these tanks, something unusual is brewing.
The secret ingredient is a grain called Kernza. It is a perennial wheatgrass with a slightly nutty taste and a climate-friendly reputation. Deschutes has teamed up with outdoor clothing brand Patagonia to create a new beer using the grain.
When asked how customers react, brewer Ben Kehs laughs: “They say what is Kernza?
Kernza has deep roots that pull carbon from the atmosphere and require less water. There is less tillage and fuel consumption because there is no need to replant it every year. Kernza can be used as an alternative to barley, which, along with hops and water, is one of the three main ingredients in beer.
“I would say they are all to one degree or another,” says Kehs when asked which ingredients face climate threats.
These sobering threats include drought, extreme heat and wildfires.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the Pacific Northwest, where about 75 percent of the nation’s hops are grown. Hops are the delicate flower that gives beer its flavor and aroma. They are particularly sensitive to changing conditions.
In Washington’s Yakima Valley, Ryan Christian oversees hops research at Yakima Chief Hops, a grower-owned global hops supplier. When asked if the future of beer depends on hops, Christian does not hesitate: “Hops are absolutely an integral part of beer. »
But growing hops here during hot, dry summers depends on irrigation powered by snowmelt from the Cascade Mountains. As the climate warms, the spring snowpack decreases rapidly. Scientists predict it could fall by 75% by the end of the century, threatening a vital water source for farmers.
“We are now heading into a fourth consecutive year of drought that has never happened in the past,” says Christian. “Dryness is normal. The frequency is abnormal.”
In the Yakima Chief Ranches laboratory, researchers are working to develop drought- and disease-tolerant hop varieties, in hopes that innovation can keep pace with climate change.
From experimental grains like Kernza to hardier hop varieties, brewers and farmers are adapting in real time to try to protect the future of America’s favorite beverage.
Climate Central is an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts about climate change and how it affects people’s lives.
