CALIFORNIA DROUGHT: No more beer?

Spend money on desalination

 

Stone is opening a facility in Richmond, VA, and Ballast Point is rumored to be looking into the same area; so I wouldn't be too worried. My guess is that CA breweries that can afford it will probably be looking into alternative sites on the East Coast or other regions with sufficient water resources to expand in. As such, I'm sure that we're going to see some breweries being forced to close because of these restrictions or just lack of water.

 

LAGUNITAS in Chicago! Life is good!

 

The technology is there. It's just expensive. But I don't think the state of California really cares too much about how taxpayer money is spent.

 

Breweries will need to deal with slow/no growth and more expensive capital projects to reduce water consumption. Bear Republic spent $1 million on a water conservation project: http://www.takepart.com/article/201...-helping-ca-town-get-through-historic-drought

I would also think that another factor that some of these California breweries went looking on the east coast was access to water and reducing risk on a single location. In essence multiple suppliers. I wouldn't be surprised to see other larger CA breweries looking to expand east. The drought is just another reason to do so.

 

The restrictions are going to hit people watering lawns way before people using water as an economical or agricultural use. It may just be a bit less and waste will be looked at very closely. At least making beer brings/keeps money in the state, while watering grass and flowers is just wasteful and provides no value at all, except maybe property value.

I honestly would be more concerned with being able to take a shower, or having water to cook with than making beer.

As for desalination: I would rather have a method to make water drinkable that is not cost effective than not have water at all.

 

Desal is extremely energy-intensive. There are options for reclaimed water though, and I think California is already making significant headway w/ that. I'd say bye-bye lawn before I said bye-bye beer.

 

Just one more reason for Californians to bail out on a once idyllic state.

 

Invade Canada, steal out water, build pipeline, make beer, problem solved.......I think.

 

And guess where they're moving ...
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/newcomers-arriving-in-record-numbers-but-from-where/

 

I'm so glad we're building a bullet train instead of investing in water retention projects. Great job Sacramento.

 

Haha if the drought was so bad that there was no more beer I think we would have much bigger problems than a lack of our favorite beverage. If anything prices may go up especially for hops but hopefully that will be a gradual process rather than a sharp increase like gasoline.

 

If I were thinking of opening up a microbrewery in Cal, our water problems would be the deal breaker. Opening a business in this state is tough enough without the threat of running out of the business' blood.

I don't anticipate this problem will get any better unless we have 2-3 consecutive years of record rainfall.

 

Desalination is an energy-intensive process which produces waste products. There are emerging desal technologies, such as solar desalination, which look promising, but since it's in its infancy, the cost is twice that of other methods. The solution is going to take more than a reliance on emerging technology, but it's going to be hard convincing folks who think their consumption habits are sustainable.

 

Gonna ride that bullet train down South for all my beer releases! That's what it's for right?

 

Of course they are. If I were going to move anywhere out of California, why wouldn't I move to a state that had no state income tax?

 

Then please move to Vancouver, Washington. You'd have no state income tax and then you could drive across the Columbia to Portland to do your shopping (no sales tax). Beer is a lot cheaper in Portland to begin with.