The latest issue of New Brewer has the yearly hop , and malt, numbers, here's a few highlights: There were a total of 59,725 acres of hops grown this year in the US. That's double the acreage since 2012 (29, 683). 57,339 of those acres were in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The US is the largest hop growing country, with Germany in 2nd, 50,452 acres. Michigan was the 4th largest US hop growing state, with 720 acres. (for comparison, in the NW, 96% of US hop acreage is represented by multi-generational family farms, averaging 700 acres.) 76.5 % of hop acreage is for aroma hops, with 23.5% being Alpha varieties. The top 10 hops, by acreage, in order: Citra, Cascade, Simcoe, Mosaic, Zeus, Centennial, Columbus/Tomahawk, Amarillo, Chinook, and Pahto. New Zealand had 2,200 acres of hops. Australia had 1,729 acres of hops.
NZ and AU have increased acres in response to demand, they were closer to 1000 a piece not to long ago. MI has seen reduced acreage, as smaller operations found that it was not profitable and ceased growing. Still waiting on my NB issue.
Last year, the average for the 3 PNW hop-growing states was 1,943 lbs/acre. See the 2018 Hop Growers of America stat pkg for info on the individual hop varieties. Footnote on page 10:
I'm surprised California isn't increasing acreage, certainly seems like there's demand enough. Do they also average such a lower yield? Or are nut trees just that much more profitable?
The articles go into it a bit, but, the sort version is: for commercial operations you need the right latitudes, amount of daylight and darkness at certain times in the growth cycle, certain temperatures, and other variables.
So is it just that the historic hop growing regions of CA don't actually produce high enough quality hops? Sudwerk put out a great beer made with their estate hops, grown in Davis and there is certainly higher latitudes in the state that are arable
Idaho only moved into the top 3 of hop-growing states in the mid-1960s. Even then, at #4 California's yield per acre was a bit higher by 100-300 lbs/acre than the other 3 in 1964 - when yields were between 1429 lbs. (ID) to 1750 (CA). Between 1958 and 1968, California's hop acreage was reduced by nearly one half, from 5901 to 1500. Obviously, as a agricultural product, yields varied from year to year, region to region. My impression was always that by the 1970s hops just weren't as profitable to grow in California as other crops, and other land usage.
Irrigation is another factor. Even though Yakima is basically desert, there's plenty of water available. Cali has water issues.
Ya both good points. I was driving home from thanksgiving today and passed through HOPland and it is now wall to wall vineyards. I'm guessing those grapes are both more profitable and at least a shade less water intensive
Neither was mentioned in the "world hops" article. South Africa might be a future player, but I suspect we are a long way away from Japan being any sort of measurable impact grower.
The Hop Growers of America's website also has links to the International Hop Growers Convention reports - latest one being from August, 2019 so some of the info is listed as "estimated". Japan - 106 hectares / 202 metric tons South Africa - 427 hectares / 754 metric tons (by comparison) USA - 24,163 hectares / 49,030 metric tons 1 hectare = ~2.47 US acres 1 metric ton = ~2205 pounds
In the discussion on yields above, it was not stated that variety has the biggest influence. Aroma varieties usually yeild less per acre. Centennial has a low yield. Mosaic is a favorite of the farmers, as it is > 2200 lb/ acre. They use drip irrigation in Yakima to minimize water costs. Hops are thirsty. About 5 years ago the snowpack was low in the Cascade range, water was scarce. CA? Many of the hop fields on the SF peninsula are now houses. Same for around Sacramento. Grapes took over Sonoma county. One could read about this in the Barth Haas Hop Atlas, if you can find it through a library system, or pay 200€.
