Brewers small and large in the U.S. expect the cost of beer to increase as the Ukraine conflict threatens global crop shortages and packaging remains in short supply. In California, home to more craft breweries than any other state, some have also reported problems with transportation and trucking shortages. “I think brewers have been hit kind of particularly hard,” Chuck Skypeck, the technical brewing projects director for Brewers Association, a community of craft brewers, told The Epoch Times. The cost of making brew has jumped as the industry struggles to get aluminum cans, cardboard, barley/malt, and trucking and shipping services during the worldwide supply chain crisis. Aluminum prices have gone up around 40 percent since last January and barley costs a dollar more for a bushel. Continued strain on the industry is likely to lead to higher prices at the pub, industry experts say. “This will put pressure on breweries …