Climate change is becoming more and more intense, and in addition to the melting glaciers we often see in the news or the increasingly frequent megafires, it will affect our lives in more profound ways from places we can't see – for example, making beer more expensive and less tasty.
Beer (Image source: Veer Gallery)
Ancient beer history
The history of beer drinking can be traced back to the Neolithic period, when cultivation agriculture first appeared, and humans began to grow food crops such as barley and wheat near settlements. However, grains such as barley and wheat are difficult to chew and digest, so they need to be boiled in water to make porridge.
These porridges may have been inadvertently left to rest for a few days before fermentation, and when the yeast fermented, they produced not only alcohol, but also large amounts of carbon dioxide, and a new kind of food with a bubbly and alcoholic taste (at that time, this primitive sake was more of a wine-flavored porridge than wine).
（图片来源：Wikipedia）
The stone mortar in the Raqefet cave may have been the site of beer brewing by ancient humans 13,000 years ago, in which archaeologists have found the residue of beer (porridge).
With the rapid development of human brewing technology and the wide availability of raw materials for beer production (theoretically, beer can be brewed as long as there is starch, and barley and wheat are food crops that naturally make beer easy to brew), and by the time of ancient Egypt, drinking beer had become a custom. According to historical research, when the Great Pyramids of Giza were built, the workers were rationed 4-5 liters of beer per day, and the city-states of the Mesopotamian plains also paid their wages with beer.
This Xi later spread to Europe as well. Even though the aristocrats who drank wine and other fruit wines at that time looked down on beer and once thought that beer was an unhealthy drink, this was not enough to match the love of beer among the common people. With the rise of the Industrial Revolution and colonial expansion around the world, beer became the world's third best-selling beverage after water and tea.
Bakeries and breweries in ancient Egyptian tombs (Image source: Wikipedia)
Hops are added
It was because of this love that people in the Middle Ages experimented with various condiments, such as various herbs, in beer, and in the process of experimenting, hops appeared in beer.
The official name of hops is "hops" and is an herb. Hops not only give beer its characteristic bitterness, but also significantly extend the shelf life of beer because of its sterilization and sterilization function, so this ingredient is fixed, and finally beer becomes the taste we drink now.
Hops plants and hops (Image source: Wikipedia)
The beer brewing process improved by modern technology, in simple terms, generally mixes the starch source (usually sprouted barley) with hot water to prepare wort, then boils it, adds hops during the boiling process, adds yeast to it after cooling, and the liquid filtered by yeast fermentation is beer.
The beer crisis in the face of climate change
In modern times, climate change has affected the yield and quality of the two major ingredients used in beer, barley and hops.
The first is barley, a food crop second only to corn, rice and wheat, with 30% of its production going to brew beer. The ideal temperature for barley is between 15°C and 20°C, and sufficient precipitation is required throughout the growing season, especially during the grain-filling period.
Europe currently supplies about 60 percent of the world's barley, but with climate change, Europe is now often experiencing extreme heat and drought conditions during the summer months when barley is flowering and filling. High temperatures can cause heat stress in barley, reducing its photosynthesis capacity and resulting in lower yields. Not to mention droughts, especially during the grain-filling period, which can lead to severe crop failures.
In the summer of 2018, Germany experienced the highest temperatures on record for 138 years, culminating in the lowest barley production since 1994, and local farmers were forced to mix these barleys with previous years' barley and try to sell them to breweries, only to be rejected by breweries due to poor quality – a situation that could become the norm in the future.
Barley (Image source: Wikipedia)
Then there are hops, which are the ingredients that give beer a special bitterness and aroma, in which the bitterness comes from α-acid. A recent study that collected data on 90% of hop-growing areas in Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovenia between 1971 and 2018 sheds light on the impact of climate change on hops.
Hops are now ripened 20 days earlier than in the pre-90s of the 20th century, while hop production is down 0.2 tonnes/ha per year, while the α-acid in hops has decreased by 0.6% since 1994 compared to before.
Hops prepared to make beer after harvest (Image source: Wikipedia)
According to current estimates, by 2050, temperatures in Europe could rise by 1.4°C and precipitation could decrease by 24 mm compared to 1970. According to this estimate, by 2050, hop production could fall by 4%-18%, and α-acid content by 20%-31%.
The world's main hop producing region is also in Europe (Image source: Ref. 3)
The decline in the yield and quality of barley and hops will undoubtedly lead to a serious decline in beer production and taste in the future.
Although some people have already started to look for higher altitude mountain areas to grow hops, and on the other hand, they have begun to breed drought-tolerant and heat-tolerant hop varieties, but it remains to be seen whether and how effective these methods will be.
epilogue
Actually, the problem of beer is not a big problem, after all, the hops are gone, and the α-acid in them can be chemically synthesized, but the real problem is the global food supply, and the problems that have given rise to a series of industries related to it.
For example, barley, which is used as a raw material for beer, is more useful in making feed, and if the feed is reduced, the number of animals is reduced, and the meat price will naturally decrease, and the price of meat will naturally rise. In addition to this, the production of staple foods such as rice, wheat, corn, and even the cocoa beans used to make chocolate may also be reduced.
From this point of view, future climate change may affect all aspects of our lives. Are you ready to live with climate change?
bibliography
1.BINDEREIF S G, RÜLL F, KOLB P et al., Impact of Global Climate Change on the European Barley Market Requires Novel Multi-Method Approaches to Preserve Crop Quality and Authenticity[J/OL]. Foods, 2021, 10(7): 1592.
2.BENTO V A, RIBEIRO A F S, RUSSO A,et al. The impact of climate change in wheat and barley yields in the Iberian Peninsula[J/OL]. Scientific Reports, 2021, 11(1): 15484.
3.MOZNY M, TRNKA M, VLACH V, et al. Climate-induced decline in the quality and quantity of European hops calls for immediate adaptation measures[J/OL]. Nature Communications, 2023, 14(1): 6028.
Producer: Popular Science China
Author: Earth-Star Gravity (Popular Science Creator)
Producer: China Science Expo