" Hey, have you heard?"

Subprime mortgage issues. The credit markets are melting down. Housing starts are at a 16 year low. Food and gas prices are thorugh the roof. Those are just some of the headlines in 2007. The biggest story of the year?

There's a worldwide hop shortage. In fact, it's now reached crisis proportions.

Some experts are saying that some craft brewers will have to shut their doors. It's a scary proposition for those of us who earn our living making beer.

The hops shortage is due, in part, to poor crop production in the U.S. and around the world. Hops have also been turned under to make way formore lucrative crops. Can anyone say corn for ethanol?)

Last fall, a warehouse in California burned to the ground--with about one million pounds of hops in it.

If you drink Bud or Coors Light, not to worry. The big boys are first in line for their share.

The rest of us will just have to get cagey going into 2008.

Hops are usually harvested in the fall, and inventoried for the year. As we brew this for the first time, the entire inventory is depleted.

Maybe we should have named this beer, "Hop Today Gone Tomorrow."

Hop Envy IPA

Style Guidelines: This IPA is our first response to the news of an impending hop shortage. We like our hoppy beers at Barley's and brewed this one with the finest ingredients available. Cascade and newly available Summit hops during conditioning contribute the grapefruit / citrus character that make American IPAs distinctive.

Rotation Schedule: First brewed in November of 2007. We will keep it in rotation with our other hoppy beers as long as the ingredients are available.

Food Pairings: You know the drill-- spicy food, Ethnic cuisine like Indian or Thai. Wings and IPA are a match made at Barley's. Apple pie could hold its own, if it is spiced with cinammon and cardomom!

Body: medium

Color: golden delicious

Grain: British pale lager and wheat

Bittering Hops: American Nugget and Simcoe, and British First Gold

Finishing Hops: American Simcoe and Cascade, and British First Gold

Original Gravity: 1.062

IBUs (estimate): 72

Alcohol By Volume: 6.0%

First Tapped: Previewed on firkin, December 7, 2007

Barley's Brewing Company Ale House No. 1xxxxx 467 North High Street Columbus OH 43215

Barley's Smokehouse & Brewpub Ale House No. 2xx 1130 Dublin Road Columbus OH 43215