A SAD day for the Beer world.

Up in smoke: 4% of America's hops. Cry in your beer.
About 4 percent of all hops in the USA went up in flames yesterday. Most of the country's crop is grown in Washington's Yakima Valley, where a 40,000-foot warehouse fire consumed rather a lot of the essential beer-brewing ingredient on Monday. AP says: "By mid-afternoon, flames engulfed most of the building, sending up plumes of smoke and a pungent aroma." On NPR.org, JJ Sutherland blogs, "The cause of the fire is not known. Nor is the effect on beer and beer prices. The world mourns. Start hoarding now."

courtesy of www.boingboing.net