Craft breweries shutting down due to U.S.
carbon dioxide shortage
NBC News,
by
Rob Wile
Original Article
Posted By: ladydawgfan,
8/4/2022 12:06:17 AM
Craft breweries across America have been on the front lines of businesses facing higher material costs because of inflation.
Now, many are confronting a shortage of a key ingredient: carbon dioxide, the gas that gives beer its crisp, effervescent taste.
And one brewer has already said it plans to shut down a key manufacturing plant and lay off workers as a result.
Night Shift Brewing, in Everett, Massachusetts, just outside Boston, cited the CO2 shortage as the reason it is suspending operations at its longtime facility and outsourcing to nearby locations instead.
"Come October 1, we won’t likely have jobs for many of this team," the company said in a statement on Instagram.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
itsonlyme 8/4/2022 12:36:44 AM (No. 1237177)
How soon before there's a pretzel or popcorn shortage? The "horses" at the local watering hole always seem to blame DJT for most everything. Beer tends to soothe their miserable lives.
6 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
DVC 8/4/2022 12:45:53 AM (No. 1237179)
Real beer carbonates itself. If they are adding it later, that's pretty fake beer, it would seem to me.
But, I can't stand the taste, and don't drink it, so am no expert. I have had friends who made their own beer and it carbonated itself in the bottles.
19 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
snakeoil 8/4/2022 12:51:18 AM (No. 1237182)
This would have never happened if Ted Kennedy were still alive.
18 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Axeman 8/4/2022 1:04:55 AM (No. 1237191)
It takes too long to go through the secondary fermentation to get it self carbonated (and leaves residual yeast). They can just carbonate it with CO2 and save a step.
I wonder if my favorite Bavarian brews have this problem. Nah! Any big brewery likely makes their own CO2.
5 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
DVC 8/4/2022 1:18:44 AM (No. 1237195)
Re #4. As I understand it, the way CO2 is made today is a byproduct of fertilizer production from natural gas.
IIRC, this is strictly from memory (so might not be exactly right, should be close) they react the Natural Gas (methane, CH4) with steam (high temp H2O) and get CO and lots of Hydrogen (H) from both the water and the NG. (H20 + CH4 >>> CO + 6 H ) They react the hydrogen with nitrogen from air to get NH3, which is ammonia, which is used as fertilizer directly or nitrated into ammonium nitrate, a solid fertilizer....and can be an explosive, too.
The CO (carbon monoxide) is burned with air (oxygen) to create CO2, providing a secondary product CO2 and generating some heat to run the process.
SO......if Russia isn't shipping any fertilizer, which they make from their excess natural gas, then probably not shipping any CO2, either.
9 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Mushroom 8/4/2022 1:19:32 AM (No. 1237196)
#2/4 Brewing under pressure is a current method of reusing/retaining the CO2. It's not hard, but you must have the correct equipment, the old open bucket/vat homebrewing folks are unable. I have used various lock assemblies to be able to add dry hops. Flavoring is generally done at last kegging and again, we inject it in.
If there is any weakness it is going to be in dispensing. By draft or canning/bottling the systems require CO2. O2 must be avoided at all costs. Nitrogen is a valid sub, but it changes the tase and mouthfeel of the beer.
5 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
DVC 8/4/2022 1:21:44 AM (No. 1237197)
I just checked my water and natural gas reaction....the numbers are off, but the reaction is basically correct.
Should be H20 + 2 CH4 >>>> 2 CO + 9 H, I think. Any chemists out there to check this? Rusty on chemistry.
2 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
konocti95 8/4/2022 2:55:10 AM (No. 1237211)
#5 is showing off! And how come L-dotters know so much about beer?
10 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
konocti95 8/4/2022 2:58:29 AM (No. 1237212)
How can there be a CO2 shortage with the J6 committee still in session?
17 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
ladydawgfan 8/4/2022 3:25:02 AM (No. 1237218)
RE #9:
That's methane that is produced by the J6 scam-mittee, not carbon dioxide.
21 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
ussjimmycarter 8/4/2022 3:45:20 AM (No. 1237222)
Glad I quit drinking! Wait…no soda? Whoa! We might have to drink water? Oh yea…we are wasting that too! America…land of shortage in two years under RAT and RINO control! Better raise taxes! Call it the rescue beer act if 2022!
7 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Strike3 8/4/2022 4:49:07 AM (No. 1237247)
Beer good, CO2 bad. How are they going to reconcile that with climate change that pronounces all CO2 as poison?
Beer needs a little time to produce natural carbonation. The 3-day cycle that most breweries use do not allow enough time so they inject it in. As an example, old Budweiser used to take 30 days to brew a batch, now it's 3. The difference could be tasted when they cut the time.
9 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Trigger2 8/4/2022 5:25:41 AM (No. 1237256)
Joey & his enabling demonrat inflation action effects.....
3 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 8/4/2022 6:57:54 AM (No. 1237293)
Stop global warming.....drink more beer!
7 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
SailorJack 8/4/2022 7:15:44 AM (No. 1237299)
I thought the brewing process generated its own CO2. Why isn't this a problem for soft drink makers?
3 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
rightdog 8/4/2022 7:23:26 AM (No. 1237302)
This is dripping with irony. Looks like the left have succeeded in reducing the amount of CO2 to the point that there's no need to go forward with climate change spending.
11 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
red1066 8/4/2022 8:47:24 AM (No. 1237359)
Are we importing this from China as well?
4 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
GustoGrabber 8/4/2022 8:55:47 AM (No. 1237369)
Millemials drink white claw "because it has less carbs"
5 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
motorcycleboy 8/4/2022 1:38:27 PM (No. 1237663)
Well, the Supreme Court says CO2 is a "greenhouse gas" so I suspect environazis are behind this, just like the war on cow flatulence!
0 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
konocti95 8/4/2022 2:44:17 PM (No. 1237765)
Re #5/7: According to your stoichiometry (Gosh, do I feel smart now!) natural beer production seems to make lots of excess hydrogen. So why am I not driving a hydrogen powered car and filling the tank at my local brewery?
1 person likes this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
konocti95 8/4/2022 2:48:44 PM (No. 1237772)
#10: We are both correct, it's a two ended process.
2 people like this.
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