Commentator (and Chicagoan) Dennis O’Toole had a spot-on piece on All Things Considered tonight. He managed to bring together the global hops shortage, Obama, PBR, and a knock on hipsters all in one brief piece. Give it a listen.

In related beer news, Larry Bell (of Bell’s Brewery) is growing some of his own ingredients now, to deal with the aforementioned shortage, and there’s probably going to be more of that. There will need to be if America’s craft brewing industry is going to keep growing at 12% annually. Other brewers are branching out (hedging their bets?) and going in to the hard liquor business. It’s a busy time to be brewer!