Trump made all beer more expensive — and no one knows why

Beer was quietly added Wednesday to a list of aluminum-linked products now subject to a 25 percent U.S. import duty. The move, buried in a bureaucratic annex and part of a broader trade war unleashed by the Trump administration, has left European brewers fizzing with confusion — and drinkers foaming with rage.

The uncertainty goes beyond cans. The customs code used — “beer made from malt” — appears to cover all beer, no matter how it’s packaged: cans, bottles or kegs. That’s been especially frustrating for brewers, given that most other European food and drink exports were hit with a lower 20 percent tariff — making beer one of the hardest-hit agri-food categories.

“The way it is phrased, it is all beer that is in, regardless of the container, but we are seeking clarifications,” said one industry insider. “It’s not as if beer is the only product that comes in cans.”

European beer exports to the U.S. topped €1.1 billion last year, with Guinness, Heineken and Stella Artois among the bestsellers. About a fifth of that trade, by value, is shipped in cans. The customs code applies globally — so even top exporters like Mexico, which supplies over 60 percent of U.S. beer imports, are hit.

The tariff’s scope has left companies uncertain whether to ship — or sit tight and hope for clarification. Belgian brewers, already operating on tight margins, fear a prolonged standoff.

“We don’t know how long the measure will be in effect, and that uncertainty is already damaging,” Raf De Jonghe, head of Belgian brewers’ group BEER, told Belgian daily Nieuwsblad.

Trump, who has long abstained from alcohol due to his late brother Fred’s battle with addiction, once launched his own vodka brand — “Success Distilled,” as the tagline put it.

The European Commission estimates his sweeping new tariffs — including a 20 percent blanket levy and separate 25 percent duties on cars, steel and aluminum — will affect up to 70 percent of all EU exports to the U.S., worth some €380 billion.

While Brussels is preparing to respond, officials say they’re deliberately delaying action to avoid appearing panicked — and to buy time for a possible negotiated off-ramp.

The fallout is domestic, too. Much of the aluminum used in U.S. can production comes from Canada, and American smelters aren’t equipped to produce enough of the alloy used for beverage packaging.

Beer lovers haven’t exactly waited quietly. On Reddit’s r/beer, a forum of nearly half a million brewing nerds, the mood was bleak. One of the most upvoted reactions simply read: “A massive sales tax on beer? What a fucking asshole.”

From the industry side, the tone was more diplomatic.

“Beer, like wine, is a product loved on both sides of the Atlantic, and has been part of our culture for thousands of years,” said Julia Leferman, secretary general of The Brewers of Europe, a trade group representing thousands of brewers across the EU.

“We struggle to understand why it appears to have been downgraded to merely a ‘derivative product of aluminum.’ ”