Beer Rationing Begins In The UK

Is this how the world ends? Not with a bang but with empty tap lines, beer shortages and angry mobs in the streets?

Here’s the deal…

In an effort to counter the European CO₂ crisis he United Kingdom’s largest food wholesaler, the Booker Group who service a considerable number  independent convenience stores, grocers, pubs, and restaurants in Great Britain, is taking wartime-like steps and begun rationing the sales of beer and cider to its customers.

The wholesaler has capped customers to 10 cases of beer, and five of cider or soft drinks each in an effort to lessen the impact. And with summer’s temperatures soaring and the World Cup in full play the timing couldn’t be worse.

So how did this CO₂ crisis happen?

As  Gas World reports it started when the supply of food-grade carbon dioxide in Europe came under pressure in April due to “the ‘usual’ turnaround of maintenance procedures in ammonia plants”.

Then things became “critical” after other plants were also closed following technical issues and the UK which only has one large-scale CO₂ plant currently operating, became the hardest hit.

And when you add in the season (summer being a peak time for beer, cider and soft drink consumption) and major sporting (and drinking) event like the World Cup, you’ve the perfect storm for beer rationing and a drinks industry disaster.

As the Drinks Business so astutely explains

While CO₂ is a natural byproduct of the fermentation process and can be captured so that beers are ‘naturally carbonated’, it is also used to flush out oxygen in the bottling and canning process as well as to create pressure in kegs so that beer is forced out of the containers.”

Adding to concerns on the Continent is the fact that many pubs and bars often use a mixture of 60% carbon dioxide and 40% nitrogen to dispense beer

Heineken is already reporting disruptions to their production lines and have led them to limiting supplies of their Amstel and John Smith’s brands.

A statement from Booker explaining their new policy of limiting its customers to 10 cases of beer, and five of cider or soft drinks was less than encouraging.

“Due to the international shortage of CO₂, we are experiencing some supply issues on soft drinks and beer. We are currently working hard with our suppliers to minimize the impact for our customers and cannot comment further at this stage.”

So what’s next a zombie apocalypse?