Your beer needs carbon dioxide, but the price skyrocketed over the summer
NPR September 22, 20222:17 PM ET BILL CHAPPELL
Carbon dioxide has no taste, no odor, and no color — but it's a vital ingredient in the beer business, from putting frothy bubbles in brews to blocking oxidization that makes beer taste stale.
But brewers are now worried that a carbon dioxide shortage could force production cuts and price hikes. It's the latest threat to an industry that's been whipsawed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We've talked to our supplier, and our supplier basically told us they were not taking on any new clients to make sure that their long-term clients have a steady supply of CO2," Bryan Van Den Oever of Red Bear Brewing in Washington, D.C., told NPR's Morning Edition.
Three main factors are behind what Paul Pflieger, communications director of the Compressed Gas Association trade group, calls
"CO2 tightness."
...It's a byproduct of other processes, such as ammonia and ethanol production. But this fall, ammonia plants are undergoing scheduled maintenance shutdowns that will keep them from producing carbon dioxide, Pflieger said. Similarly, many ethanol plants that went offline during the pandemic haven't resumed operations.
And then there's the weather: The beverage industry accounts for 14% of U.S. carbon dioxide, but demand soars across the board when it's hot.
"Every summer, demand for CO2 skyrockets because people want more beverages," and dry ice (the solid form of carbon dioxide) is used more, Pflieger told NPR. "The record heat that we're seeing in this country and around the world is making this worse."
