Hi guys,
I’ve been searching the internet to see if some previously unavailable hops (in rhizome form) will be available in the spring… So far, it’s the same ole varieties, but I wanted to see if anyone had any inside info. I really want amarillo, but I don’t think that’s in the cards.
The proprietary strains will not be availbale for a long time. Either the patents and trademarks will run out, or they will no longer be popular and will be made available. Amarillo is the property of one farm. I don’t think they plan to realease it anytime soon.
Stupid trademark laws…
It takes investment, work and about 10 years time to bring a hop variety into porduction. If you were to do this you would want to protect your investment and get a return.
In the past hops were bred by the USDA lab in Oregon (some in Washington). Much of the work was funded by BMCs as they wanted high alpha hops. The hops were released to the public, as they were developed at public institutions, and the BMC’s wanted the high alpha to be grown as much as possible.
Which is probably where my Columbus in the backyard came from?
Columbus is/was trademarked. Then there is Tomahawk and Zeus, both trademarked. At the NHC a few years back, Ralph Olson of Hopunion stated that those were all proven to be the same in DNA testing. He said the DNA testing was done for the lawsuit. You can do some searches to find more on that.
Don’t know for sure, but I think that if the rhizome is out of the barn, so to speak, you have lost your IP and there is not much reason to protect it. The other trademarked varieties have been around for a while and some have patents to add more protection.
Thanks for the info!