I have been buying hops from the 2018 harvest and have found everything I need except Goldings. I brew a lot of English styles and Golding is my main go to for these styles. Has anyone else noticed this, are Goldings being fazed out? I bought all the other hops I need at Hops Direct but no Goldings there or at Yakima or Farmhouse. What’s up?
You are talking of US Goldings?
Just what I was about to ask.
Hop Heaven has 2018 US Golding pellets and whole hops in their preseason sale.
Not sure if they are in the eBay store yet: Security Measure
I can’t find the email address. But you can contact through the eBay store.
Sorry, yes Us Golding in leaf. I prefer EKG but by the time they are available it’s in the dead of winter and too cold to brew for me. I seen on a couple of other forums of some having trouble finding them and thought this would be the place to ask. Maybe it’s still a little early.
I checked on the ebay store but no 2018 hops listed, I’ll try to contact him, thanks.
I did look after I posted the question. US Goldings have a fairly stable acreage. Either it was a low yield year for some reason, or the use by a larger brewery went up, both of those are conjecture.
I will say that I don’t be see whole cone hops in some of the Homebrew shops much these days. I like them for various reasons.
This is what I have been seeing too. I like for them dry hopping and my brewery is set up for whole hops with also some pellets after a get enough whole hops to cover the false bottom. I think they add some flavor too that I don’t get with pellets.
I’ve gone back to whole cone and LHBS is very limited. Frankly Hops Direct is probably the best source, but no help for you there, Mike. Freshops has US Goldings, but I’ve had variable satisfaction with their product, and the crop year isn’t listed. You can try the big online shops; MoreBeer has EKG but they never list the crop year on the site or the label, and while quality on whole cone is ok IME, it isn’t on the level of Hops Direct or Hop Heaven. YMMV. Whole cone is just a specialist niche now I guess. And I bet some big guys like SN and Deschutes can impact a variety’s supply, kind of what Jeff’s thinking – but who’s using that much Goldings?! Good luck. If you find a good source, let us know. I might be interested too.
Rob and Mike:
I just looked on Hops Direct website and the have U.S. Goldings pellets for sale there. If you click on the picture or the details it gives the crop year. The Goldings listed are on sale for $9 a pound to make room for the new crop and the crop year listed is 2017. So it appears that there are some available. Doesn’t help you much Rob as you are back to whole cones now.
I used to use whole cone hops as well but went to pellets since the utilization is a bit better and whole cones are getting harder to find. However, I have to modify my strategy and put the hops in a bag since I tend to clog up my inline screen (which I use to keep the hop particles out of my plate chiller). My boil kettle has a false bottom and I draw from the center of the keggle to feed the chiller. I have a large BIAB that I now plan to put the hops in that should alleviate that problem. I will probably modify my kettle to draw from the side which will allow me to whirlpool at some point in the future.
I agree that Hops Direct and Hop Heaven are the best bets for whole cone hops. Some of the others mentioned don’t advertise harvest year and don’t seem to be as good. I have e-mailed Hops Direct and Hop Heaven, no answer from HD but Ted at HH said they have US Golding leaf in the pre-sale and will have them on the e bay store in a month. Thanks all for the help.
Time to grow your own?
I’m already on it. This spring I ordered some hop plants from Great Lake hops and found this hop. The first year growth was even more vigorous than the Nugget first year I also ordered.
https://www.greatlakeshops.com/store/p58/_Vojvodina_-_Field_Grade.html
I see they are discontinued now so I’m glad I ordered two plants.
Far from it - at least from a UK perspective, growers are struggling to catch up with the massive increase in demand over the last 5 years, which is why prices have nearly tripled in that time. And it’s going to get worse - last year there was such a bumper crop that the poles were collapsing under the weight of the bines, whereas the heatwave means that some UK farms are reporting yields 30% down on average.
I suspect some US merchants have seen the problem coming, and have bought up any US Goldings they see to help their commercial customers fill out any shortfall in British Goldings. As usual, the homebrew market gets squeezed out. But if you’re really desperate, you can always find British stores with Goldings…
Not for British varieties, they will always be produced in quantity as cones rather than pellets, it’s more a question of retailers outside the UK being encouraged to stock them.