With beer drinking down in US, barley farmers now fear tariffs

H

Hume

Verified User
CHICAGO, March 18 (Reuters) - Overdue loans and mounting interest payments often weigh on Montana barley grower Mitch Konen as he bales hay and loads trailers at his remote farm overlooking the snow-capped Rocky Mountains.

As spring sunshine warms the fields, Konen, 65, and other barley farmers worry tariffs will take away crucial export markets and increase the cost to grow the grains, even as sinking U.S. beer consumption has slashed demand for barley.


Joe Sixpack getting angry.
 
Beer consumption in the U.S. has been sliding and in 2024 it hit its lowest level in over 40 years as more Americans chose other alcoholic beverages, said Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Association. Recently, hard seltzer drinks and canned cocktails have posed particularly bruising competition to beer.
 
Hume said:
Beer consumption in the U.S. has been sliding and in 2024 it hit its lowest level in over 40 years as more Americans chose other alcoholic beverages, said Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Association. Recently, hard seltzer drinks and canned cocktails have posed particularly bruising competition to beer.
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It's probably because I don't drink anymore. Bazinga!
 
Hume said:
American made stout is far superior to Guinness.
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I love Guinness, but it is not the same drink you get in the UK here. We Americanize the stuff and it is less than. When I was in the UK I visited the brewery (after we hopped over to Ireland of course, cheap flights between the islands) and stayed in supposedly "haunted" places. I never saw any ghosts, but I did have fantastic beer.

When we returned home I got a Guinness at the airport... It was sadly lacking something.
 
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