Venezuela’s top-selling beer scarce during heat wave

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelans are facing the prospect of a heat wave without their favorite beer, the latest indignity in a country that has seen shortages of everything from disposable diapers to light bulbs.

Cerveceria Polar, which distributes 80 percent of the beer in the socialist South American country, began shutting down breweries last week because of a lack of barley, hops and other raw materials, and has halted deliveries to Caracas liquor stores.

“This is never-never land,” said Yefferson Ramirez, as he navigated a rush of disgruntled customers behind the counter at a corner store in posh eastern Caracas. The shop has been out of milk and bottled water for months, but the beer shortfall is provoking a new level of irritation.

“People more freaked out about losing beer than water,” Ramirez said.

Some of the customers walking away empty-handed headed a few blocks down to El Tigre, a prime showcase of the country’s beer culture, where people while away balmy nights with a steady stream of light beer that comes in undersized bottles to ensure it never gets warm.

El Tigre has kept going during a heat wave that has seen temperatures soar as high as 86 degrees in a month that averages 73 degrees by buying up all the Polar beer its waiters can find at supermarkets and selling the bottles for 200 bolivars rather than the normal 150, in violation of government price controls.

Angel Padra was arranging his empty bottles into concentric circles at his table one night last week, lamenting that Venezuela wouldn’t be the same without the dark version of the popular beer, Polar negra.

“I started drinking ‘negra’ when I was 13,” he said. “This is our religion. Take away beer and things get risky.”

The shortage comes at a time when Venezuelans could use a little relaxing. Tensions are running high ahead of an election that the ruling party is expected to lose badly. A recent supermarket looting left one man dead, and in July, the head of Venezuela’s Liquor Store Association was arrested for unexplained reasons after denouncing the shortages of beer-making materials.

It’s unclear when the national beer might start flowing again. Production cannot resume until the government approves foreign currency to import raw materials, according to Polar industrial engineer Daniela Escobar.