Citra Hops Unavailable After This Year?!!!

I dont mean to cause a panic or spread false info but I was in my LHBS this past weekend talking about a future brew using Citra hops. The owner said he just found out from his supplier that a large private brewery or company bought the entire next years crop and future crops for x amount of years and he was unsure if he was ever able to get more in.

Is anyone able to confirm this or have they heard the same?

I tried contacting hopsdirect with an inquiry but have not heard back yet.

ohh man i hope this isn't true

yea me neither! This guy definitely is not one to make anything up to sell more either. In fact he had 10 oz left and said he would sell me 2, keeping the rest for himself. He seemed pretty worried, which worried me. Just trying to get confirmation but hoping he is wrong.

That doesn't make sense. I call BS.

Found this online:

"Sorry to say that the Citra Hop is a patented variety and is unavailable to anyone other than those who are licensed to grow it. It’s frustrating I know, but like Amarillo, Simcoe, and Summit: Citra is only available as a grown, processed, product."

Its possible.

if there's demand, they'd just grow more. What about the other big breweries that are using it now? They're just SOL because another big brewer wants to increase their order? At most, I'd guess it might be short for a year, then it would catch up.

Dang my Citra Wheat is a signature brew. I need to get what my sources have if there is any truth to it.

My LHBS has been out of Citra the last few times I've been in. Not sure if that has anything to do with this, but I thought I'd throw it out there. And I was planning to do my 100% Citra Abbey Pale Ale again.

unionrdr said:

weeel then...maybe some of us should get together & become licensed to grow some of these patented varieties for the members. Check out hydroponics,they do it the same way highbred Mary Jane growers do. Hmmm,Cali orange hops? Sour diesel hops? We grow blueberry yum yum,& it's de finest...lolz It's ludacris,man. Hmmm,...ludahop farms?

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Holla!-tauer


I hope citra doesn't become as hard to get as it seems like it might. It's one of the hops in my APA, and I love that recipe.

My Hurricane IPA and the oak aged Ship Wreck IPA was a smash this summer, I hope it's not true.

I thought i saw an article in BYO that the Citra Hops we are currently enjoying were part of a 'successful' experiment. Now that everyone loves it, they'll grow more. So, at the least, i suspect there could possibly be a shortage for a year until they get their supply going again

How I interpreted what he was saying was not a demand issue but the owners of the patent are in contract to exclusively sell to 1 company for x amount of years. For the right price maybe????

I was hesitant to come on the board claiming this w/ out facts, but i was hoping someone with connections might be able to find out a solid answer, or if anyone else had heard rumors.

JKoravos said:

if there's demand, they'd just grow more. What about the other big breweries that are using it now? They're just SOL because another big brewer wants to increase their order? At most, I'd guess it might be short for a year, then it would catch up.

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Breweries have contracts for their hops, often quite a long time in advance. Since the contracts are honored first, homebrewers get the leftovers.

I have a friend (Titletown Brewing Company in Green Bay, WI) who told me two years ago he bittered every brew with magnum. When I asked him why, he laughed and said that he was contracted for a ton of magnum hops.

So, the breweries have contracts for the amounts of their hops. If they want more, they will get them if they are available. The homebrewers will get whatever is left.

Yooper said:

Breweries have contracts for their hops, often quite a long time in advance. Since the contracts are honored first, homebrewers get the leftovers.

I have a friend (Titletown Brewing Company in Green Bay, WI) who told me two years ago he bittered every brew with magnum. When I asked him why, he laughed and said that he was contracted for a ton of magnum hops.

So, the breweries have contracts for the amounts of their hops. If they want more, they will get them if they are available. The homebrewers will get whatever is left.

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as goes with almost anything. whoever the companies who are selling the product in bulk to, always has their choice. if there was a shortage of lets say potatoes, and i owned a small restaurant, and a food chain got the same potatoes, who do you think would get their order first? the big guys. thats where all these huge companies make their money. and its guaranteed money with a contract.

I'm sure if the demand is there, then they will dedicate more acreage. It could be that the 2011 crop is all but spoken for, but if they can sell more in 2012, and demand props up the prices, you better believe someone will find more space to grow more.

They were just giving away 2 or 4 oz packs of Citra pellets at the NHC in an obvious promotion. The G/F and I each nabbed some. I doubt they'd promote a hop at a home brewers convention that is going to be all but unavailable to the home brewing community.

Yooper said:

Breweries have contracts for their hops, often quite a long time in advance. Since the contracts are honored first, homebrewers get the leftovers.

I have a friend (Titletown Brewing Company in Green Bay, WI) who told me two years ago he bittered every brew with magnum. When I asked him why, he laughed and said that he was contracted for a ton of magnum hops.

So, the breweries have contracts for the amounts of their hops. If they want more, they will get them if they are available. The homebrewers will get whatever is left.

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It would makes sense except homebrewers don't buy direct from farms usually. Surely the big homebrew stores can demand as much or more than your average brewery? And I don't mean LHBS I mean big online retailers...

Anyway I am pretty sure both of the stores I shop at has Citra in stock still so I might buy enough to do a couple brews. Maybe refrain from bittering with it too would stretch it out.

Have none of you noticed that both Rebel Brewer and Brewmasters Warehouse are advertising fresh hop preorders for a bunch of varieties this year, including Citra? Check the Vendors Showcase threads. Sounds like your LHBS may have been misinformed.

Perch06 said:

Have none of you noticed that both Rebel Brewer and Brewmasters Warehouse are advertising fresh hop preorders for a bunch of varieties this year, including Citra? Check the Vendors Showcase threads. Sounds like your LHBS may have been misinformed.

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go perch yourself in the corner! no, i agree. I have 3 LHBS, (someone forgive me when I have to go to them), and when one tells me there is a Simcoe shortage because Dogfish Head bought up the entire crop for their 60 minute, I find that the other LHBS just received a new order of simcoe. It's bogus. Yes, there may be shortages, but this doesn't sound right

BucksPA said:

go perch yourself in the corner! no, i agree. I have 3 LHBS, (someone forgive me when I have to go to them), and when one tells me there is a Simcoe shortage because Dogfish Head bought up the entire crop for their 60 minute, I find that the other LHBS just received a new order of simcoe. It's bogus. Yes, there may be shortages, but this doesn't sound right

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It has a lot to do with where the LHBS in question buys hops from. They don't get them from the farmer's muddy hands. They go through one of a few distributors. Believe it or not (sarcasm) a LHBS doesn't demand enough volume to buy bales straight off the back of the tractor. My personal LHBS uses 3 hops suppliers that I know of, and that's irregular for this town. Most only go through one.

It's entirely possible that the LHBS from the OP's story only has a single supplier who contracted all of their citra to some brewery, and therefore that LHBS won't have citra for a few years.

Also, when a LHBS contracts 1/2 bale and a brewery with a 40 bale contract calls and needs 5 more, the brewery gets priority. Would you rather lose a $1k contract of $100k?

Another thing, the proprietary hops are just that, and the owner of the strain can control production in order to keep the price up and an aura of "exclusivity." Add in unexpected losses due to fire, disease, drought, etc and it's not surprising that the proprietary may or may not be available to homebrewers.

The good news is that if you look around you'll find a bunch of newer varieties to be experimented with. My LHBS has recently started stocking bravo, apollo, and motueka as well as a couple others. I could care less if citra isn't available next year because I've seen the list and there's plenty on there that they could get that I've never played with.

I guess in theory it would be a smart move by any brewery large enough and with enough capital to corner the market on a particular hop variety. Think about how crazy it would be for a brewery to be the sole producer of citra hopped beer. Would people end up supporting them for the love of Citra or shunning them for their unwillingness to share the hops with fellow brewers?

trigger said:

It has a lot to do with where the LHBS in question buys hops from. They don't get them from the farmer's muddy hands. They go through one of a few distributors. Believe it or not (sarcasm) a LHBS doesn't demand enough volume to buy bales straight off the back of the tractor. My personal LHBS uses 3 hops suppliers that I know of, and that's irregular for this town. Most only go through one.

It's entirely possible that the LHBS from the OP's story only has a single supplier who contracted all of their citra to some brewery, and therefore that LHBS won't have citra for a few years.

Also, when a LHBS contracts 1/2 bale and a brewery with a 40 bale contract calls and needs 5 more, the brewery gets priority. Would you rather lose a $1k contract of $100k?

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Although, I believe most LHBS' are purchasing their hops from a distributor like LD Carlson, who probably has reasonable clout with the hops distributors.

This doesn't necessarily mean Citra's are gone. One big company has agreed with the farmer to buy all the hops they produce at X price. farmer is happy, he got what he needs and is sure everything is being sold and knows years in advance what his profits should be. This doesn't mean that said brewer can't turn around and sell them out to whomever he choses at X price + 200%. If there is such a great demand, they will all sell, and he has made a big profit on them.

I'm sure there is nothing stopping all the millionares on this board from doing the same thing. Negotiate with the Amarillo farmer, when his contracts are due, you will buy all his production and sell everything back to us underlings on the board with your markup.

Very easy to make lots of money when you already have money to burn.

If this is the case. You may want to consider getting your hands on a cone and performing micropropagation. Idk if it works with dry hops since I'm unsure as to whether their cells are dead. But with a successful multiplication you could have your own citra plant

I haven't yet tried Citra but just 'discovered' Amarillo. Brew to come as soon as the mercury drops a few degrees. If any of these proprietary hops slip out of the LHBS it would be a shame; however, homebrewers being the resourceful bunch we are will adapt to whatever comes our way.

We make the best beer around already, don't we?

B

Zen_Brew said:

I'm sure if the demand is there, then they will dedicate more acreage. It could be that the 2011 crop is all but spoken for, but if they can sell more in 2012, and demand props up the prices, you better believe someone will find more space to grow more.

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This is not necessarily true, I don't think. If there is more money in selling very large quantities to a big company for a premium because it will not be available to anyone else (IE, signature hop), don't think they'll sell to the little man for less.

I wish I could think better of corporations, but in the end they'll do whatever brings them the most profit financially, not what brings the most people the best hops.

lurker18 said:

This doesn't necessarily mean Citra's are gone. One big company has agreed with the farmer to buy all the hops they produce at X price. farmer is happy, he got what he needs and is sure everything is being sold and knows years in advance what his profits should be. This doesn't mean that said brewer can't turn around and sell them out to whomever he choses at X price + 200%. If there is such a great demand, they will all sell, and he has made a big profit on them.

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Ding ding ding.

Secondary revenue stream for a brewery much?

Zen_Brew said:

They were just giving away 2 or 4 oz packs of Citra pellets at the NHC in an obvious promotion. The G/F and I each nabbed some. I doubt they'd promote a hop at a home brewers convention that is going to be all but unavailable to the home brewing community.

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I was just thinking the same thing reading this...

Just picked up some citra. Smells so good...

I call BS. HopUnion was literally giving away packages of Citra hops at NHC. I don't think they'd do that if there was a shortage.

i love it when supply controls demand... (heavy sarcasm)

trigger said:

It has a lot to do with where the LHBS in question buys hops from. They don't get them from the farmer's muddy hands. They go through one of a few distributors. Believe it or not (sarcasm) a LHBS doesn't demand enough volume to buy bales straight off the back of the tractor. My personal LHBS uses 3 hops suppliers that I know of, and that's irregular for this town. Most only go through one.

It's entirely possible that the LHBS from the OP's story only has a single supplier who contracted all of their citra to some brewery, and therefore that LHBS won't have citra for a few years.

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This could be. We are a small town on an island. The store is a mom and pop homebrew store, albeit a great homebrew shop which does the community a huge favor. Possibly his means of getting the hops for a few years are different than other large homebrew shops on the mainland.

Just figured the forum is for learning and sharing. Thought I'd share what I learned

I just took a look around at the big stores and I'll be damned everyone I looked out was out of citra completely. As well as Simcoe and Amarillo. The stores I frequent, small ones have all of that in stock fwiw. Let me ask you though, is it possible that we have just reached the end of the 2010 hops supplies? And the re-up just not harvested yet?

JKoravos said:

if there's demand, they'd just grow more. What about the other big breweries that are using it now? They're just SOL because another big brewer wants to increase their order? At most, I'd guess it might be short for a year, then it would catch up.

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This might have already been covered, but it takes 7 months to a year (depending on when the demand hits) for the industry to respond to increases demand.