Depending on how medieval the setting is, hops were not the common bittering in many beers, it was a mix of herbs called gruit. If this mix's ingredients are secret (or regulated), it would be easy to monopolize and drive the price up.
The price may be going up due to the cost of some profane adulterants being added in ever greater quantities...


Yes but the html it generated was a monstrosity. If you wanted to edit it again, you better use dreamweaver.