For businesses already dealing with rising costs and staff shortages, the latest supply chain crunch could be the last straw. Or to be more precise, the last pint.
Some brewers in the Boston area say they are running low on carbon dioxide, the ingredient that makes beer and soft drinks fizzy, a shortage that illustrates the tenuous state of a manufacturer-to-consumer delivery process that was taken for granted before the pandemic.
“It’s pretty dire,” said Matt Malloy, chief executive of Dorchester Brewing Company, which learned a few days ago that it would only receive a quarter of its regular supply of CO2.
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So far, the problem can be traced to one local CO2 distributor, Everett-based American Gas Products, which has been canceling or reducing deliveries to brewers.
The manufacturer that AGP gets its CO2 from recently faced an unspecified issue that “significantly impacted production,” according to chief operating officer Matthew D’Auria. He hopes the situation will be resolved in a “month or so.”
Meanwhile, Dorchester Brewing is contacting other CO2 distributors, hoping to receive a delivery before it is forced to pull back on production and canning.
D’Auria declined to specify how many CO2 customers the company serves in the Boston area, but Katie Stinchon, executive director of the Massachusetts Brewers Guild, said she knows of “at least a dozen or more” brewers affected by the supply slowdown.
Among them is Night Shift Brewing Company, according to three people with knowledge of the situation. When Night Shift learned that its distributor didn’t have enough CO2 to make its next delivery, the Everett brewer only had a few days’ worth of supply left. (Night Shift declined to confirm the name of its supplier to protect the brewer’s relationship with the company.)
“We’ve heard anything from, ‘this might be a year-long problem,’ to ‘maybe we’ll get a shipment next week,’” said Rob Burns, Night Shift’s president.
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In anticipation that it would run out of CO2 last week, Night Shift tapped Isle Brewers Guild in Rhode Island and Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers in Framingham for help. Jack’s Abby already brews about half of Night Shift’s 40,000 annual barrels. Though Night Shift did manage to secure a last-minute CO2 delivery to support another week of packaging — helping it to avoid dumping tanks of flat beer — the price was 118 percent higher than normal.
“We can’t plan our business around one-time drops,” said Michael Oxton, the brewer’s cofounder.
For that reason — and others specific to Night Shift — the company has accelerated plans to operate almost entirely on contract brewing relationships with IBG and Jack’s Abby. The company plans to use the Everett facility as a small research and development space, but will no longer make the majority of its beer with its own staff and equipment.
Burns said Night Shift will pay its 12-person production team through Oct. 1 and is encouraging them to look for jobs elsewhere. The company will still develop new products and operate its retail locations in Everett, Boston, the Encore Boston Harbor casino, and along the Charles River Esplanade.
Brewers in the past have faced shortages of aluminum cans, cardboard packaging, and hops, but they have generally been able to avoid major disruptions by paying more for those products elsewhere. An inability to obtain CO2, though, could be especially problematic.
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CO2 is pumped into beer to add carbonation, and it is used throughout the production and canning process to keep the liquid from mixing with oxygen.
“Carbon dioxide gives the beer that bite, that refreshing flavor and effervescence,” said Al Marzi, chief brewing officer at Mass. Bay Brewing, the parent company of Harpoon Brewing. “If you don’t have carbon dioxide, you’re down; there’s nothing you can do.”
Restaurants also use CO2 to dispense soft drinks and draft beer.
Sam Hendler, cofounder of Jack’s Abby and president of the Massachusetts Brewers Guild, said he knows of several brewers that are “dangerously low on CO2 and are not finding options available.”
The CO2 used in the food and beverage industry is generally collected as a byproduct of manufacturing processes, including ammonia production and ethanol fermentation. Airgas, a Pennsylvania-based CO2 distributor, said “supply and supply chains remain fragile” for several pandemic-related reasons, including deferred plant maintenance and permanent closures.
“In normal circumstances, Night Shift would call another CO2 supplier... maybe pay a little bit of a higher rate for emergency delivery,” Hendler said. “Right now, they’re calling other suppliers who are so tight themselves...they’re saying, ‘Sorry, we can’t deliver to you.’ ”
When a plant goes offline, distributors can be left with a major shortfall.
“There’s not another [plant] around the corner where you can suddenly get this CO2 from,” said Marzi.
Reuters reported that the maker of Sanpellegrino, a popular fizzy drink, has been “forced to trim its production” due to CO2 shortages, and a water park in California, which uses CO2 to treat water, temporarily paused its splash area for the same reason.
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Stinchon said CO2 shortages have been a concern nationally since the height of COVID, but local brewers had largely been shielded from the impact until now.
Brewers that don’t use American Gas Products are taking steps to avoid problems similar to Night Shift’s. Lamplighter Brewing Co.’s supplier said it can continue refilling its CO2 tanks, but Lamplighter cofounder Cayla Marvil said the Cambridge company is “working on contingency plans in case that doesn’t actually pan out.”
Marzi said Mass. Bay Brewing is shifting its processes to substitute nitrogen for CO2 wherever possible. (AGP is helping Dorchester Brewing install a nitrogen generator so the brewer can conserve CO2).
Though nitrogen can replace CO2 to push beer from one tank to another, brewers need to use CO2 to carbonate the drink. American Carbonation, Marzi said, has told the company that it “won’t be able to supply us” any more CO2 than it now receives, which could inhibit growth. “Unfortunately,” he said, I don’t think this situation is going to get a lot better anytime soon.”
Anissa Gardizy can be reached at anissa.gardizy@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @anissagardizy8 and on Instagram @anissagardizy.journalism.