Hop stocks are building, the demand is slowing, what will happen? Might be a tough time for brokers and farmers. Certain hops are still in demand.
Buy, buy, buy! Brew, brew, brew! Support your hops growers !
Pretty interesting. For us in the short term, lots of good sales, I assume. Long term, looks like setting priorities on the part of growers and wholesalers for the best selling varieties, culling the lesser ones(?) So many varieties out there now, some good ones may not get grown any more if they aren’t selling. Thanks for posting.
That is interesting.
Remember the shortage?
Yes, that was a good article to see the trends occurring…I had heard about a year or two back that the Northern Brewer hop in steam beer was going by the wayside, as well, since it wasn’t selling as prolifically and the plants don’t put out as much volume on that strain. The poor farmers are caught in the switches as trendy hops take so long to develop to production levels and by the time they are producing the new varieties, the fickle customers (both craft brewers and their patrons) are on to the next sensations being developed.
I have gone back to mostly lager brewing and use noble hops almost exclusively. I hope they don’t stop making them in Germany.
Yes I do. The cycle goes back and forth.
In Yakima they say they can get 80% to full production the first year. Good soil, lots of sun, irrigation, and they really know what they are doing.
Everywhere else it takes a while.
“I had heard about a year or two back that the Northern Brewer hop in steam beer was going by the wayside, as well, since it wasn’t selling as prolifically and the plants don’t put out as much volume on that strain.”
I hope this doesn’t happen: I love using N.B. in porters…
Majorvices, how about some IPA special editions?
It’s kind of inevitable given the flattening of the craft beer trend. Breweries are cancelling hop contracts and stocks are building up in warehouses since the hop industry produced based on a growth trend that no longer exists.
I thought the big brewers had their own farms for the majority of their product use.
Edit: Was checking out the Smithsonians Beer Historian (Best job ever?) and she had posted this pic which kind of blew my mind. I can recognize some of the numbers in the article, seeing the scale is a whole different story.
ABI does. Rogue grows some, but not all of theirs. Don’t know of any others, but I assume some do. In general it’s not real common.
ABIs Elk Mountain farm is big at 1800 acres, and grows a fraction of what they use. It has been phasing over to Aroma varieties, the current trend.
Sierra Nevada has 9 acres, enough for the Harvest series.
Bell’s has ~2 acres, and those are planted over the geothermal field, buildings couldn’t go over that.
There are others, but the amount produced is small vs. use.
That’s kind of like Rogue. They produce just enough to say they grow and use their own hops. But it’s very limited.
was wondering about this being inevitable not only due to flattening in the industry growth but with so many varieties that continue to pop up.
Same here. Also, the amount of time that it takes to bring a new variety to market is rather long. I fear that as the market hits saturation, many smaller hop breeders are going to feel the pinch when there just isn’t enough demand to support the continued influx of new varieties that they have in the pipeline.