The Hops Market

It seems to me that the hop shortage panic has been reduced, in my opinion due to economic times. I see few if any brew suppliers limited hops; I see prices coming down and inventories up. It points to a couple of possible things:

1. The hop shortage was more hype than reality where prices were driven more by the perception of a shortage than an actual shortage.

2. Less people are brewing right now or brewing less, leaving more hops to be had.

However, because the perception of a shortage caused growers to jack their prices, suppliers bought at higher prices and are selling at higher prices, although in some cases, a lack of demand is reducing prices slightly (at least at the places I looked into or buy from).

And when hops were supposedly short and the panic was peaking, hops on ebay were flying with multiple bids and ridiculous prices. Now, the majority of hops listed have no bids.

My suggestion is to start looking for better prices because supply is steady and demand is dropping, thereby making it a buyers market!!!

well who has the best prices and where is a good place to buy? Im ready to stockpile

What evidence do you have that there was only a perception of a shortage as opposed to an actual shortage?

There were a number of professional brewers that could not brew certain beers because they could not get the hops. It is not that they could not afford the hops, they could simply not get them. There may be other breweries that did not seem to experience a shortage because they had contracts and the hop suppliers had to fill contracts before they could offer hops on the open market.

Tell it to my LHBS...went yesterday and they didn't have one variety I was looking for, and even the subs were limited. Several had OUT FOR SEASON on the bin. Looking at about $3/oz. We're an hour away from the hop farms and I'm still seeing no relief.

The prices have dropped now since the 2008 crop is in and people can let go of their 2007 crop for cheaper. I think your other factors influence it as well, but there was a shortage of hops, and we are not out of the woods yet.

^, no, i dont think prices really have dropped since the 2008 crop is in

The shortage was quite real. Crop failures in Europe, a major warehouse fire in Washington, etc.

Homebrewing is a drop in the bucket, craft brewing is the bucket and BMC is the ocean. Fewer people brewing is meaningless.

Supplies are a little better this year, because no major crop failures occurred. 2009's crop should be larger as 11,000 acres of new hops were planted in the USA in 2008.

I started brewing during this hop shortage, and know nothing else. Out of curiosity, what was the price of hops when all was well in the world?

I've got to think it was around half the current price, maybe a little more. So where I'm now paying $6/2oz, it was closer to $3 - $4.

Laughing_Gnome said:

I started brewing during this hop shortage, and know nothing else. Out of curiosity, what was the price of hops when all was well in the world?

Click to expand...

It is honestly hard to remember (and I have only been brewing for a couple of years). However, when I first started, I don't think I ever paid over $1.25 an ounce.