DES MOINES, Iowa — A carbon dioxide shortage is straining the beer industry nationwide, hitting small local brewers the hardest.
In Iowa, that's forcing craft brewers to get creative to keep their beers flowing and their businesses from going flat.
Carbon dioxide is a crucial ingredient, giving your favorite beer bubbles and body.
"It's a byproduct of ethanol production," said Scott Selix, cofounder of Lua Brewing in Des Moines. "And ethanol production is down for a bunch of different reasons. And because of that, CO2 production is down."
Selix is also the president of the Iowa Brewer's Guild. While he says Iowa isn't seeing a carbon dioxide shortage yet, brewers are starting to feel the effects.
"Costs have doubled, in some cases tripled," Selix said. "And the price that consumers are willing to pay for a beer hasn't doubled or tripled, although I think most consumers are expecting to pay a little more. Now, it's not in line with how costs have increased."
Some larger brewers are investing in systems to re-use the carbon dioxide that comes off during fermentation. But that's a six-figure solution, money small businesses just don't have. That means they're at the whim of the supplier, and right now, no one really knows if supply will keep up with demand.
"There's just nothing we can really do," Selix said. "And so if that time comes where we can't get CO2, the solution really becomes we're gonna have to shut down and it's not just breweries. Bars, they use CO2 to push beer through their tap lines. Soda, same thing, you use CO2."
The executive director of the Iowa Brewer's Guild, Noreen Otto, echoes those concerns, saying every aspect of keeping a brewery afloat is costing more.
"I think the big fear for Iowa brewers right now is that we're going to continue to see rising price costs for the supplies, they need to both make the beer to serve in their tap rooms," Otto said. "But even more so the beer that we distributed out to folks around the state of Iowa, so we see increasing costs for CO2, also increasing prices for aluminum cans, and cardboard and distribution."
But there is a glimmer of hope. Otto said that Iowa's beer scene is on the rise and back to pre-pandemic levels.
"So, overall, craft beer consumption has recovered, especially our tap rooms really are welcoming people back," Otto said. "What's important [is] we're seeing some growth in tap rooms around the metro."
So if you want to save the beer, there's even more good news.
"If consumers choose Iowa breweries, that's a great way to support our beer," Selix said. "And, you know, the more beer you sell, the more you can spread out these costs increases across that beer."
In other words? Drink more beer, local beer that is.
To that, we can all raise a glass.