Hops shortage

[Devil Doc]

Just heard on NPR, that poor weather in Europe, has caused a hop shortage, which will result in a price increase of micro-brewed beer. Stock up now fellas. Bad times are a-commin'

Doc.

 

[denverdog]

Just heard on NPR, that poor weather in Europe, has caused a hop shortage, which will result in a price increase of micro-brewed beer. Stock up now fellas. Bad times are a-commin'

Doc.

That sucks but hell I spend so much on beer it won't matter if prices go up a few percent. :sign:

A couple of related Links.

Link 1

Link 2

 

[3Vandoo]

I dont get it

most US micro used american hops like Yakima, Cascade and so on.
Since weeks we hear that because of the new graze of ethanol, many producers said bye bye to hops and went the "green" way with ethanol and now in europe bad weather caused it?

it is me, or they are using the same scheme the oil companies are using

 

[ewanzel]

I dont get it

most US micro used american hops like Yakima, Cascade and so on.
Since weeks we hear that because of the new graze of ethanol, many producers said bye bye to hops and went the "green" way with ethanol and now in europe bad weather caused it?

it is me, or they are using the same scheme the oil companies are using

The short answer is that US has had poor hop harvests the past couple years (especially this year due to weather)...this coupled with market trends in the hop market over the past 15yrs helped create the current shortage. There were extremely low prices in the 90s were due to a hop excess due to overplanting and large harvests, which created a market where it was hard to survive as a small hop farmer due to low price/lb at market. Durring this hop boom many of the smaller farmers (and some of the larger farmers) were forced out and their land was converted to more cash-driven crops. Since that time Asain countries have begun to grow very found of american hops and the US micro industry has continued to grow at an uncontrolable rate. This has made Hops a very valuable crop by comparison to where they were at just 10 yrs ago. Many of the larger breweries are under 1-5+ yr contracts with their hop growers to ensure they will be able to get the amount/kind of hops that they need. Alot of your smaller breweries are hurting right now because they aren't under contract and most of this years harvest is already dedicated to the larger breweries. The price for the amount of hops that aren't already spoken for by the larger breweries has skyrocketed over the past few months due to their limitted quanity...this trickles down and you will see a price increase in your micros in the months to come. As a homebrewer I can tell you this is very much a reality. However, I got lucky and bought some of last years harvest in bulk before the price went up. For example I bought a lb. of Cascade Hops for less then 1/2 of what the prices are at now. The sad news is that projections are saying that this situation may not be resolved for another 2-3 years (it takes that long for new hop binzes to produce well). Some micros are already beginning to reach out/plead for any hops they can get (regardless of kind or price) because they have none. British and Euro hops have also had bad harvests the past few years to complicate things.

The green arguement/ethonol is really going to effect the grain more. Projections are saying that corn futures are going to really jump after the 1st of the year causing a similar shortage/price increase of brewery grade 2 and 6 row barley due to farmers planting more corn to cash in...it is a sad time for craft beer lovers and brewers alike.