Hop Shortage

I know that. The guy above said he had Simcoe and Warrior that he grows. I had to ask.

BTW - like the avatar.

 

For the first time I am happy that German styles are not the rage. I've never had any problem getting my Hallertau or Tettnang hops. Keep brewing those DIPAs, kids!

 

The Tettnang region must have had a poor crop. I was unable to find whole Tettnang most places, even ones that I have bought by the pound from in the past. Can you share where you bought? Whole or pellet?

Edit - The Hallertau Mittlefrueh were really aromatic this year. Really liked those.

 

I heard several months ago that it would be tough to get those varieties so I bought whole pounds when I could find them and have kept them in my freezer. I'm thinking a lot of other people did this too so it caused a lot of places to run out quicker than they would have otherwise.

I have had good luck finding these at local homebrew shops though. I found some Simcoe, Citra and Amarillo at tiny shops in Indianapolis and Dayton last month.

 

I have had no problem at all finding them at my LHBS, in nearby Charlotte, and online at Northern Brewer. Tettnang were exclusively pellets, HT were both whole and pellet.

 

Saw the ones at NB (pellets), but I would rather use whole hops in my system.

 

Ouch!

It seems more people are stocking up in the Fall in an attempt to avoid getting caught in a repeat of an '08 style shortage ('08 wasn't that long ago). Unfortunately, it's creating a shortage, of sorts, for those who, for whatever reason, didn't stock up. A LHBS won't stock more that they think they can sell. If they sell out their entire year's supply by December because everybody is stocking up, then there is a perceived shortage. I managed to get a pound each of Citra, Centennial, Chinook, and Amarillo pellets from HopsDirect the day they started selling the new crop in October - I had been checking the website two or three times a day. Total price was $60. That's $15/lb, or just under $1 per ounce. They were sold out within hours.

 

90 percent of my hops are purchased at HopsDirect. Got caught with my pants down concerning the Simcoe. My freezer is full with everything I need for the rest of the year. The only good thing about the Simcoe that I just received was that it came in 1 oz packages so I do not have to repack with my Foodsaver.(Had to find a silver lining somewhere)

 

How about substitutions? I bought a pound of Apollo, Bravo, and Serebrinka (sp?).
I just kegged the first single hop IPA, Apollo, and it remided me of Amarillo. Lots of tropical fruit type stuff going on.
Just brewed the single hop Bravo, and a IIPA split evenly between Apollo and Bravo. Cannot wait!

 

Serebrianka is the Russian domestic equivalent to a noble hop. Name means "little silver one", got that from the latest Zymurgy.

One of the hops used to breed Cascade was Serrebrianka. Don't know if Serebrianka is anything like Cascade, probably not. Saaz might be closer to Seebrianka.

 

That is how I used it too, nobel. I made 10gallons of Tripel/Golden strong type wort and split between regular sugar and homemade candysugar. Still fermenting so not sure. I got a 22oz+ lb bag from hops direct so for 9$ so I was not shy using it .
Also used it in a hopburst type belgian session ale yesterday so hopefully after all this I will have learned something about it.

 

How is it you have Simcoe? And if you do I will gladly buy some rhizomes from you.

 

Your asking about the three hop varieties that sell out first.

This is nothing like '08 when all we had to choose from was cascade, willamette and ekg (which is an exageration, just not much of one). Also, these were selling for around $4-5 per ounce.

 

Trademarks have a potentially limitless term, but, a trademark wouldn't protect a hop variety, a plant patent would. (A trademark would protect a name for a hop variety though, but you could have a generic name of the same varietal, think Xerox vs Copier). Plant patents, like standard utility patents, last for 20 years from the filing of the patent application.

 

The newly developed varieties have plant patents.

 

I have heard about this "hop shortage" We must get lucky here. The local Homebrew shop has Citra, Amarillo and Simcoe. If any one MUST have some I could help you out.

 

Like Columbus = Tomahawk and Zeus

 

The HBS I work part-time for in Monroe, CT has plenty of Citra if any one is interested. They offer shipping to anywhere.

http://www.maltose.com

But now, in addition to Simcoe, Centennial is becoming scarce.

Part of the issue is that there are nearly 700 new breweries opening in the US this year. I know of five in Connecticut alone.

 

Feels like 700 in Minnesota alone right now, I've lost count.

 

Oh, and I think we found out where the centennials are https://bellsbeer.com/store/products/Centennial-Hops-%2d-1-lb-Pellets.html ($14/pound...not bad)
Go figure...Bell's has 'em