Upcoming hop shortage

[bpgreen]

article

[RickBeer]

The article doesn't even mention BeerLord's freezer...

[Beer-lord]

I'm ready for whatever comes my way.
I have heard now on podcasts, for many months, this is coming but they seem to say this every two years or so. I think they know they have a hot item and use this as an excuse to charge more. However, we all know that with the growth of the breweries as well as homebrewers, there is a lot more hops bought now than ever before.

[BigPapaG]

USDA 2015 National Hop Report

US production up 11% in 2015 over 2014...

2015 USDA National Hop Report

For your review...

Trying to find a global reference for 2015...

EDIT: Here we go... 2015 International Hop Growers Convention

2015 International Hop Growers Convention

Statistics broken down by hop producing countries...

[bpgreen]

USDA 2015 National Hop Report

US production up 11% in 2015 over 2014...

2015 USDA National Hop Report

For your review...

Trying to find a global reference for 2015...

EDIT: Here we go... 2015 International Hop Growers Convention

2015 International Hop Growers Convention

Statistics broken down by hop producing countries...

Take a look at the total production numbers. Down almost 40%, even though the area went up slightly.

And at the same time, with an increase in craft brew (and especially in IPAs), demand is increasing.

I'm glad I've got a bunch in the freezer. And if my home grown hops continue producing more each year, I should be in good shape (I got a little more than 1.5 lbs last year).

[BigPapaG]

Yup...

And even though total acreage is up, production is down...

Seems to be a combination of poor crop yield and newly planted hop fields which will take a few years to mature...

My guess is we'll be good in two to three years unless disease and poor weather continue to destroy the European hop fields... And /or demand gets much higher...

The US is ok now but demand is about to outstrip supply and NZ is looking good too...

Time to backtrack maybe and experiment with non-traditional high alpha bittering hops as aroma additions maybe?

[The_Professor]

Upcoming hop shortage

WOW! Global warming must be having some sort of impact on rabbits.

[mashani]

I blame Beer-Lord.

[bpgreen]

I blame Beer-Lord.

Ok. That's two references.

How much is in that freezer?

Edited to fix autocorrect.

[Beer-lord]

I'm low now with about 11 lbs total.
My apologies to all!

[ScrewyBrewer]

If I were King, my first edict would be to look into the corruption and price gouging that goes on when it comes to hops. It's been known for centuries, predating the use of hops, how ridiculously expensive the prices are for bittering a brewers beer.

[The_Professor]

If I were King, my first edict would be to look into the corruption and price gouging that goes on when it comes to hops. It's been known for centuries, predating the use of hops, how ridiculously expensive the prices are for bittering a brewers beer.

Ah, the days of the Gruitrecht.

[mashani]

If you were the King, you'd be taxing hops, declaring that if you call it "Beer" it must contain them, and be raking in the dough from all the commercial beers that now had to utilize them. Except for those damn heathens out in the country side who keep bittering their homebrewed old fashioned "Ales" with wormwood or myrtle or other stuff and giving you the finger.

(a little bit of English history there in condensed form LOL).

[Inkleg]

^^Inkleg "Likes" the above post^^

[Pudge]

However, I don't blame hop growers for squeezing every penny out of their product. After all, it is their product.