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If they pay attention, statisticians and humble beer drinkers might notice something interesting these days. Prices for a lot of everyday items like produce and dairy seem to be hanging steady or falling in this recession. But beer? Not so much. Prices keep going up.

Beer Marketer’s Insights points out that government data showed the “consumer price index” (a measure of inflation) for all items fell 1.5 percent in August compared to August 2008. But the CPI for beer (for at-home consumption) jumped by a “fat” 5 percent in August.

Over eight months, average prices for “all items” slipped by nine-tenths of a percentage point. But beer’s average prices were up 4.1 percent from January to August. That’s a bigger increase than for wine (up 2.7 percent) and liquor (up 2.3 percent). In Beer Marketer’s Insights‘ words, “given recent round of media hand-wringing about beer price hikes, signs of continued pricing health might catch more attention.”

With lots of consumer products companies cutting prices, “can brewers continue to buck the tide?”

That’s an excellent question, especially since crops of brewing ingredients have been strong. Brewers might find it harder to blame higher prices on higher costs for hops and barley, etc. (Anheuser-Busch’s hop farm in Idaho just posted a record harvest, for example.)