Has Anyone Else Heard that the Hop Harvest was Poor?

Northern Brewer General
1

Has Anyone Else Heard that the Hop Harvest was Poor? I was talking to a distributor that said that they were told that they hops harvest this year was not so good. Was told that they couldn’t get simcoe in leaf. Has anyone else been hearing this?

…Yes i know there is a hops thread, but general gets a lot more attention.

2

Lower than predicted yield combined and big contracts have made many hops in short supply, particularly hot varieties like Simcoe. HopUnion even has said many varieties have completely sold out already. I heard a brewer say Amarillo is almost fully contracted for 2013 harvest already too.

3

Hopsdirect sold out of pellet Citra and Amarillo in a few minutes. They did send me an email to apologize for the short supply which was nice. It’s easy enough as a home brewer to switch up hops. I wanted to brew more lagers this year anyway.

4

The USDA’s national hop report is the best source of overall information. It’s probably a month or so away from release

http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsd ... entID=1763

Simcoe and Amarillo numbers aren’t shown, though, as they don’t release numbers that could be tied to an individual farm.

5

I have an idea…let’s hijack the crop report prior to its official release, dub off a fake report and sell it to nefarious back stabbing rich brothers, and in the meantime pool our monetary resources and preemptively corner the international trading market on concentrated hop pellets, and ultimately bask in our financial glory by buying an island in the Caribbean. Then we could make a movie about it with A-list Hollywood big-shots!

6

[quote=“Positive Voodoo”]

I have an idea…let’s hijack the crop report prior to its official release, dub off a fake report and sell it to nefarious back stabbing rich brothers, and in the meantime pool our monetary resources and preemptively corner the international trading market on concentrated hop pellets, and ultimately bask in our financial glory by buying an island in the Caribbean. Then we could make a movie about it with A-list Hollywood big-shots![/quote]
I like the way you think! which island and which big shots? maybe we can make some rum! :cheers:

7

June Hop Report breaking down by variety
http://www.hopsteiner.com/pdf/USDA%20acreage%20June%202012.pdf

August expected overall harvest report
http://www.hopsteiner.com/pdf/081212USDA%20crop%20estimate.pdf

8

[quote=“Edward Teach”][quote=“Positive Voodoo”]

I have an idea…let’s hijack the crop report prior to its official release, dub off a fake report and sell it to nefarious back stabbing rich brothers, and in the meantime pool our monetary resources and preemptively corner the international trading market on concentrated hop pellets, and ultimately bask in our financial glory by buying an island in the Caribbean. Then we could make a movie about it with A-list Hollywood big-shots![/quote]
I like the way you think! which island and which big shots? maybe we can make some rum! :cheers: [/quote]

As long as the chick in it looks like Jamie Lee Curtis, I’m good.

9

[quote=“paultuttle”][quote=“Edward Teach”][quote=“Positive Voodoo”]

I have an idea…let’s hijack the crop report prior to its official release, dub off a fake report and sell it to nefarious back stabbing rich brothers, and in the meantime pool our monetary resources and preemptively corner the international trading market on concentrated hop pellets, and ultimately bask in our financial glory by buying an island in the Caribbean. Then we could make a movie about it with A-list Hollywood big-shots![/quote]
I like the way you think! which island and which big shots? maybe we can make some rum! :cheers: [/quote]

As long as the chick in it looks like Jamie Lee Curtis, I’m good.[/quote]
HAHAHA, not the chick i was thinking, but i’ll give you one thing, she looked pretty stellar in true lies

10

Yeah, the pole dancing scene. But there was that one scene in Trading Places that really got me going.

11

I find it interesting that in all of the reports referenced above, Horizon is not listed.

12

They must only be grown by a few farms. The USDA has to aggregate data when you could link production to specific producers.

13

Wow, 10,000 less acres (25% reduction) of hops harvested in 2012 than in 2009. (
http://usda01.library.cornell.edu/usda/current/hops/hops-12-21-2011.pdf
)

Meanwhile, with more and more craft breweries opening up, more demand. Ouch! Can $4 hops be far off?

14

[quote=“fightdman”]Wow, 10,000 less acres (25% reduction) of hops harvested in 2012 than in 2009. (
http://usda01.library.cornell.edu/usda/current/hops/hops-12-21-2011.pdf
)

Meanwhile, with more and more craft breweries opening up, more demand. Ouch! Can $4 hops be far off?[/quote]

A commercial brewer said to me recently that with over 1000 new breweries opening in the next year and the hop shortage that you should be able to buy brewing equipment real cheap in about 2-3 years.

15

[quote=“Denny”][quote=“fightdman”]Wow, 10,000 less acres (25% reduction) of hops harvested in 2012 than in 2009. (
http://usda01.library.cornell.edu/usda/current/hops/hops-12-21-2011.pdf
)

Meanwhile, with more and more craft breweries opening up, more demand. Ouch! Can $4 hops be far off?[/quote]

A commercial brewer said to me recently that with over 1000 new breweries opening in the next year and the hop shortage that you should be able to buy brewing equipment real cheap in about 2-3 years.[/quote]
Perfect! That suits my timeline for going pro !

16

All this makes me think I need to get into the hop growing business. I only have access to five acres though…hmm land may be an issue.

17

I just got a call from a homebrew supplier, initials LP (from the owner, no less), about my pre-ordered hops. Apparently the Amarillo crop was $%&^ed this year, and they (hopunion) pelletized the whole thing. I had preordered 2 lbs each leaf Citra and Amarillo. They gave me the option of taking pellets, changing the order to another variety, or a refund. I decided to take one lb of pellets and exchanged the other lb for Citra. Good thing I had already picked up a sizeable order of Amarillo leaf from another source. Apparently a lot of hop fields in Idaho were flooded.

18

New Hop Report was just released… Overall Hop Production Down Five Percent From Last Year.

http://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/T ... psan12.pdf