It seems cruel. America's new brewers seduced us with their full-flavored beers. Timid at first, we turned away from innocuous lagers and stole sips of pale ale. We flirted with India pale ale, pale ale's bitter cousin. And once we were infatuated, the brewers swept us off our feet with Imperial IPAs. Oh, the hops! Clouds of floral aromas, citrus and pine flavors, iron-hard bitterness: Suddenly, we couldn't get enough hops.

And now, the romance is over?

Worldwide, the brewing industry is facing a shortage of hops, that magical vine whose tiny cones give beer the bitterness to balance the sweetness of malt. This shortfall doesn't just mean higher beer prices ahead: It means hops may be so hard to come by that the most extravagant users -- our craft brewers -- will have to scale back the recipes of their hoppiest, and our favorite, beers.

How, when craft beer growth is the most robust in the beer world, and when high-hopped beers are the darlings of the movement, can this have happened?

First, agricultural products for beer have been hit with cost increases across the board. Along with hops, barley and wheat -- the principal brewing grains -- have confronted rising fuel prices and some lousy weather, especially in Europe where rogue hailstorms have had devastating local effects. In addition, grain farmers have been shifting production to corn to meet the demand for ethanol.

But hops farmers have had their own issues. This vital beer ingredient has been in surplus for a decade, pushing prices down and driving many hop farmers either out of business or into other crops. The acreage devoted to hops production has fallen by as much as 30 percent worldwide.

Farmers still in the hops business are hardly crying over prices that are up by 20 percent for widely grown varieties and up to 80 percent for specialty hops -- the varieties prized by craft brewers.

Still, there is a one-on-one relationship between hops and brewing, virtually the only industry where this product is used. Otmar Weingarten, director of the German hops growers association, may be shedding crocodile tears about the soaring prices, but he knows his members' long-term interests are in sync with brewers'. "High prices aren't really good for hop growers. They lead to less hop use, isomerized hops [chemically processed hops] for efficiency, and worse beer -- which is all bad in the end."

Facing the shortage, farmers are scrambling to replant hops fields. But the rangy vines take at least two to four years to reach maturity, which leaves some thirsty years ahead in 2008 and 2009.

Big brewing companies, which use a huge volume of hops, though with great restraint, generally have futures contracts with hop growers that will keep prices and supplies relatively steady. And China, now the biggest beer market in the world, is taking a massive bite of the hops market.

What does this mean for the little guys? First, many of them don't have the economic muscle to buy ahead so futures contracts may not be an option. Second, as supplies run short, the big brewers are buying up specialty hops and using them for large-scale industrial brewing.

Craft brewers, whose output is less than 5 percent of the American market (albeit the most vibrant sector), are facing some tough options. They'll have to charge more for their beers -- and we'll have to pay it and not whine. The most flamboyant hop users among them will have to think hard about whether the profligate use of hops in the kettle really comes through in the finished brew.

And look for a shift in beer styles. From porter to Japanese happoshu, beer production has always been influenced by economic factors -- and why should we be different from any other industry? So, in 2008, watch for beer writers touting the virtues of a new round of mellow, low-hop, malt-accented brews. Beer drinkers always find a way to adapt.