BEER PRICES TO GO UP!

THIS IS NOT A JOKE...

Get ready to shell out more of your hard-earned cash for a cold one.

According to an August 25 report in The Wall Street Journal Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors plan to boost the price of their brew.

The increases will occur later this year and will cover "different price tiers," the according to an Anheuser-Busch spokesman.

"We do plan on taking prices up in the fall on the majority of our volume in the majority of the U.S.," Dave Peacock, president of Anheuser-Busch InBev's U.S. division, told the paper. "The environment is very favorable, we think."

MillerCoors has the same logic.

"We have seen very strong pricing to date this year, and we are projecting a favorable pricing environment moving forward," Brad Schwartz, the vice president of revenue management and sales development at MillerCoors, told the Journal.

MillerCoors is a joint venture of Molson Coors and SABMiller. Anheuser-Busch was bought by the Belgian beverage giant, InBev, in 2008.

Neither company specified how big the price increases would be, nor exactly when they would take effect.

According to the Journal report, beer prices in the U.S. have been rising despite the recession. In July, the price of beer, ale and other malt beverages sold for consumption at home had risen 4.6% from July 2008, according to the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index. In 2007, prices rose 5.3%.

Meanwhile, distilled spirits rose 2%, and wine was up 1.6% in July.