Hop Shortage

Some HBS have a good supply, as they might have a good relation/agreement/contract with their supply house. Some supply houses have contracts with the hop brokers like HopUnion or Yakima Chief.

That is why some HBS have the hops in short supply, and some HBS don't.

 

Do you think they use those one pound bags from HopUnion in the brewery? Just saying.

That is a good price.

 

I wonder if there's a limit to the number of one pound packages can be purchased, or how OLD they may be.

 

My brewing shop has Simcoe... for $4.99/oz. Luckily I have a freezer full of Amarillos, centennial and citra. Buying in bulk is ideal in my experience.

 

Obviously not, it was meant in jest.

Surprising that they still have 1# bags none-the-less since most shops are completely sold out of centennials, and have been for a month.

 

My LHBS has all the ones in short supply (but not pound bags).

 

2008 was a really bad year because growers stopped growing hops. Now it's different. US demand is increasing for specific varieties. More breweries. More homebrewers. Many small breweries have had to change recipes because they haven't managed to procure enough hops off-contract on the spot market.

Now might be a good time to own a hop farm. Simcoe has three gorwers, but the product is differtent from each. Isn't Citra is still only produced by one grower? If so, HBC needs to license more growers of Citra.

 

or you could go the budget route and order some heavily discounted hops you've never heard of at northern brewer for $8 a pound! I just got a pound each of Opal, German Select, Herkules, Newport, and Smaragd. Time to get experimenting!

 

The acres harvested last year were below that harvested in 2007.
Year - acres harvested Source is the USDA, PNW hop report. The rest of the country is very small acreage.
2007 - 30,911
2008 - 40,898
2009 - 39,726
2010 - 31,289
2011 - 29,787

Hops like Simcoe and Citra still have small acreage. Simcoe = 495, Citra = 239. Simcoe has been released long, so more acres. Simcoe and Citra are grown on the same farms (Carpetenter, Loftus, and Perault). Amarillo is the one grown on one farm (Gamache), and I have heard that is about 480 acres.

Today there are more high Alpha hops, and super Alpha hops, so more Alpha/acre. The problem in the 2007 year was that there were terrible crops in England, Germany and Czech Rep, so they were buying American hop or extracts for bittering. The US crop was averge at best.

 

Actually sounds like fun to me...

 

And I have to think that the Alchemist is buying most of the Simcoe crop for Heady Topper

 

They get Vinnie's table scraps.

 

Who's Vinnie??

 

There's plenty of hops of almost every variety if you are willing to pay premium price by the oz ...and BTW Vinnie is a homebrewer that couldn't tough it out. : )

 

Another good source is
www.yakimavalleyhops.com

Some of the best prices I have seen on the net

 

I just bought Herkules and Smaragd and have them in an IPA, which is just now going into Dry Hop stage. Both of these are new German varieties and I'm curious how they're going to turn out. I"ll keep you informed how my work and please do the same.

 

I just brewed an farmhouse table beer with Smaragd and a belgian wheat with Opal. Herkules to come in the near future! Keep in touch, let's see how these new hops are!

 

My Step Father-In-Law buys hops from there. I was very skeptical at that price, but the Summits he gave me are super fresh and aromatic.

And, I love the 1/2 pound option.

 

I have stocked up on citra because that's my favorite hop ever to use and it's sort of hard to find.

 

I overbought on citra myself, so could help someone out if they were struggling to find some.