Beer drinkers of the world, you are in for some really tough times, this extraordinarily hot summer!

Craft beer companies may be facing tough times after a dry, sweltering summer scourged much of Europe, reducing the continent’s hop harvest and driving up prices for the ever-important crop, which is one of the four main ingredients in all beer. [Malted barley, water, and yeast are the other four ingredients]

Heat records were shattered in Germany, France and the Netherlands in June and July during the summer’s harsh heat wave; at the same time, the demand for craft beers continued to grow.

The shortage of hop flowers has already put a squeeze on the market, with the prices of the most popular hops increasing by 50 percent, according to the Drinks Business. Other varieties of the flower have become five times more expensive than what they normally cost.

“There has been a considerable tightening of supplies on the European hop market after the major reduction in the 2015 harvest with a sharp increase in prices,” said Barth Haas Group hop merchant Stephan Barth.

“Europe will need at least an average harvest in 2016 otherwise we could see serious supply shortages,” Barth added.

Germany, which contributes about one-third of the world’s hop harvest, saw a 26 percent decrease in its total hop production, according to the German Hop Industry Association.

In total, the world’s hop harvest is down by 40 percent, and this has hit the craft beer  industry where beers require six-times more hops than the conventional lager, Rabobank reports.

To add salt to the wound, global brewing companies like Anheuser-Busch InBev, who brews Budweiser, and SABMiller, maker of Miller Lite, typically have fixed contracts with hop growers, keeping rates at a constant price despite the dwindling harvests.

While rising prices spell good news for the farmers who grow the flower, most of which reside in the northwest U.S. and eastern Europe in addition to Germany, brewers hope the increased prices will push growers to produce better quality harvests.

This is hardly the first time there’s been a shortage of hops threatening craft beer companies. In 2008, a worldwide shortage saw Boston Beer, the brewer of Samuel Adams, offer to help over 200 small brewing companies in danger of shutting down by selling part of their share they had bought on contract, Boston Beer chairman Jim Koch mentioned in the Chicago Tribune. In 2012, the company offered a similar helping hand, this time to those in need of the specific type of hops needed to brew India Pale Ales (IPAs), one of the most popular styles among U.S. craft beer drinkers.

This shortage is not unlike the others that came before it, but don’t be surprised if you sweat a little bit more while reaching out to pay for your chilled beer!

  beer, environment, world