It’s not the grain, nor the hops. Not even the water or the yeast. The current crisis in the beer sector is due to a shortage of food-grade CO2. A chain reaction in an increasingly complex geopolitical environment has disrupted the supply chains of an input that often goes unnoticed by consumers.
Until the start of the invasion in February 2022, Ukraine and Russia were two of the world’s largest exporters of fertilizers and, consequently, of food-grade CO2, since this same industry produces carbon dioxide as a by-product of ammonia manufacturing.
As a result, Europe and the United States have lost their major suppliers of carbon dioxide. The situation is truly serious if we consider that this supply is essential for counter-pressurizing draft beer all the way to the taps in bars. In a nutshell, we’d run out of pints. Well, it’s not quite that drastic.
The truth is that the large production plants are going to have a hard time. Although beer fermentation produces its own carbon dioxide, most Spanish industrial breweries inject artificial CO2 into the drink to standardize the final result. Since there is no refermentation in the bottle, this ensures the product reaches the consumer with the same carbonation anywhere and at any time.
Although craft breweries don’t resort to forced carbonation, they still face the same supply problem when it comes to serving their product on draft, whether they have a tasting room or want to promote their brand at fairs using portable taps. In addition, the CO2 shortage is a global issue that directly affects the hospitality sector, the spearhead of the value chain.
Bar and restaurant owners have been in deep water since March 2020, when lockdown began in Spain due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, the green shoots have not materialised into a strong sector; instead, it has been the owners who have partly absorbed the rising costs. These increases will soon have to be passed on to the customer.
A problem that no one had noticed since the start of this crisis. To help mitigate this situation, at Install Beer we have added CO2 bottles and cartridges to our catalogue. For example, a 1,300-gram bottle of carbon dioxide can dispense up to 7 or 8 30-liter kegs. This solution allows small hospitality businesses to dispense beer without interruption or setbacks.
