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Among the people worried about President Trump's tariffs are people who make beer - America's craft brewers. The administration's plans for sweeping import taxes would hit everything from barley to aluminum cans to steel kegs. Colorado Public Radio's Sarah Mulholland reports.
SARAH MULHOLLAND, BYLINE: Two friends started Ska Brewery in Durango, Colorado, 30 years ago. Today, they produce 15,000 barrels of beer annually. Ska makes about two-thirds of its money selling beer at places like supermarkets and liquor stores. All that beer comes in aluminum cans.
DAVE THIBODEAU: Aluminum is the scariest for us.
MULHOLLAND: President and co-founder Dave Thibodeau is worried about the 25% tariff on aluminum scheduled to take effect this week. The U.S. imports about half of its aluminum.
THIBODEAU: Cans are a lot cheaper than bottles. So it's kind of crazy. I feel like, as far as looking at alternatives, like something other than an aluminum can, I don't know that we can get anything less expensive than an aluminum can, even after the tariffs.
MULHOLLAND: Independent brewers get most of their malted barley from Canada because the big corporate brewers have contracts for most American barley. And Canada is also in Trump's tariff crosshairs. Dan Diebolt owns a craft brewery in Denver.
DAN DIEBOLT: The grain is a product that I would be more concerned on with tariffs because our grain comes from all over the world, and there's no telling who is going to become the target of that.
MULHOLLAND: There's all kinds of steel vats and widgets. At this point, steel will be subject to the same tariffs as aluminum.
DIEBOLT: All these tanks came from China, so that could be affected.
MULHOLLAND: Practically everything in Diebolt's brewery could be affected.
DIEBOLT: We have hundreds of supply points to actually make this brewery work, and to try and know individually what's being affected by this is really, really hard to do on our scale.
MULHOLLAND: Craft brews tend to be more expensive than macro brews like Coors and Budweiser. With beer-drinkers getting pinched like everybody else by inflation, craft is a tougher sell. Ska's Thibodeau says they're looking at discontinuing some beers.
THIBODEAU: Although they're beers we love, we started kind of looking at, you know - are these beers we can continue to make? - because they're not actually making us any money now, and we don't feel like we can really raise the prices too much more.
MULHOLLAND: It's already a difficult time for craft brewers. Recent data shows declining alcohol sales in the U.S. And nationwide, craft brewery closures outpaced openings last year, with overall production down 2%, according to the craft Brewers Association. Tariffs are just going to make the situation worse.
THIBODEAU: At some point, it just gets too expensive.
MULHOLLAND: The big brewers aren't going to be completely unscathed, says Bump Williams, who runs a consulting firm for the alcoholic beverage industry. The major brands definitely have more buying power and more control over their supply chains, but at the end of the day, he says, everybody needs the same stuff to make beer.
BUMP WILLIAMS: You're talking about a massive increase in cost of goods for every brewer - big, small, medium, distillers, everybody.
MULHOLLAND: Williams estimates the price of beer will increase by 3- to 8% if all the tariffs on the table actually come to pass.
For NPR News, I'm Sarah Mulholland in Denver.
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