Fox & Duck on Petersham Road is around £6 a pint. It’s perfectly normal for London pubs, but looks like it won’t stop there. According to gastro analysts at CGA, the price of a pint will rise to £8.48 next year, maybe more. From a continental European perspective, that would be almost exactly ten euros for 0.5683 liters of beer.
Sound crazy? Well, it was to be expected that inflation would also drive up the price of beer. But more than the question of how much a pint can cost, a much more fundamental question is being discussed in Great Britain, namely: Will the beer run out soon? In any case, the country’s pubs and breweries have already sounded the alarm this week.
Responsible for the excitement is the fact that less and less carbonic acid is produced. You have to know that the CO₂ required for this comes primarily from fertilizer manufacturers. Fertilizers are not only important for fertile soil, their production also produces a by-product, namely CO₂, which in turn is essential for beer, cola and other beverages.
British Pub Association boss says it ‘couldn’t be worse’
This week, the UK’s largest fertilizer producer, CF Fertilisers UK, announced that it would “temporarily” stop production at its Billingham plant. The reason: high energy prices. From the point of view of Emma McClarkin, chairwoman of the British Beer & Pub Association, this decision “couldn’t be worse”. This raises “serious concerns about the sustainable supply of CO₂ to the brewing and pub industry”.
As pubs are an important part of British culture, the government immediately spoke up. A spokesman urged fertilizer producers to “do whatever it takes to meet demand” — “in the interest of the public.”
Britain is not alone with the carbon dioxide problem. The fertilizer manufacturer Yara, based in Norway, announced this week that it would cut production of urea and ammonia-based nitrogen fertilizers in Europe by 50 percent. Reason: “Record-breakingly high prices”.
In Poland, two fertilizer manufacturers announced that they would stop production. The Carlsberg Polska brewery has had to draw a bitter conclusion from this. “We will stop beer production at any moment. But we are not the only ones. If they do not have their own CO₂ production facilities, most beer manufacturers will have to do the same,” a company spokeswoman told the news portal political.
It’s not that far in the UK yet. And if it should actually come to that, there is at least an alternative: ale. Unlike lager beer, ale is pumped out of the barrel without the addition of carbon dioxide. In this respect: God save the Ale.