Unavailable Hops for 2012

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scotched

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My lhbs said their supplier would be out of Amarillo and Simcoe this year. :(

Anybody else keen on what won't be around this year?
 
I just picked up a few oz's of simcoe from my lhbs after not being able to get them for a while. Hope that's not all I can get this year!!! Shoulda bought more!!!!
 
I just bought a pound of Amarillo from HopsDirect.

I am pretty sure they have plenty more where that came from. I haven't looked for any Simcoe yet.
 
My lhbs said their supplier would be out of Amarillo and Simcoe this year.

The supplier they are using might not be able to get them but I am guessing that they will be available. They both are very popular hops.
 
Mine dosnt have anything. (There not a real homebrew shop just liquor store that sells kits and some loose stuff) all they do is order about one hundred packs of 2 kinds of hops and you have to special order other stuff. And they take for ever to do that. I shop with northern brewer these days.
 
Before everyone starts crying "hop shortage!!!!!!!!"....check out the brewing networks podcast on "Hop school"...is a recent Sunday Session...

The Hop industry is going through some market and supply corrections over the past few years and the shortage of Simcoe et. al is a product of that. The good news is there are some exciting new stuff coming down the pike to relieve the demand for hops like Simcoe...new blends like Falconer's Flight are going to be made available next year....and there should be a "IPA ready" blend using Simcoe and other hard-to-get hops....its called "z"-something...

Def. worth a listen if you are interested in that sort of thing.
 
The supplier they are using might not be able to get them but I am guessing that they will be available. They both are very popular hops.

Yes, that's why simcoe will be impossible to get!


Before everyone starts crying "hop shortage!!!!!!!!"....check out the brewing networks podcast on "Hop school"...is a recent Sunday Session...

The Hop industry is going through some market and supply corrections over the past few years and the shortage of Simcoe et. al is a product of that. The good news is there are some exciting new stuff coming down the pike to relieve the demand for hops like Simcoe...new blends like Falconer's Flight are going to be made available next year....and there should be a "IPA ready" blend using Simcoe and other hard-to-get hops....its called "z"-something...

Def. worth a listen if you are interested in that sort of thing.

You know, it's true that 5 years ago we hardly ever even heard of simcoe. It was a new hop coming out, and being used by commercial breweries. Same with some other strains like citra. Now they are widely used.

New varieties are being produced all the time. But I still love my amarillo/simcoe blend and have a stash in the freezer!
 
You would think that with the demand for Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra, etc....that the hop growers would be planting/harvesting them like crazy. Maybe the shortage is due to them being "patented" and only a few growers have access to them. Wish I could get some Simcoe rhizomes....
 
Part of it is that they are patented, part is that there is only a limited amount of acreage so they would have to kill off one strain in an area to plant a new one(if I remember right it takes a few years to make sure the old hops are dead, don't want warrior shooting up in the middle of your citra field) and from an older brewing network show they pretty much sell their hops to suppliers in the fall the year before the harvest which means if the market suddenly changes like with Simcoe and citra, there is an 18 month delay until you will notice that the growers have reacted. It sucks, but at least we are homebrewers and have the opportunity to tweak our recipes or try new ones if there is a shortage, it sucks for breweries who can't make signature beers due to hops not being available. They can't substitute and just tell the customer that's all they had to work with.
 
Part of it is that they are patented, part is that there is only a limited amount of acreage so they would have to kill off one strain in an area to plant a new one(if I remember right it takes a few years to make sure the old hops are dead, don't want warrior shooting up in the middle of your citra field) and from an older brewing network show they pretty much sell their hops to suppliers in the fall the year before the harvest which means if the market suddenly changes like with Simcoe and citra, there is an 18 month delay until you will notice that the growers have reacted. It sucks, but at least we are homebrewers and have the opportunity to tweak our recipes or try new ones if there is a shortage, it sucks for breweries who can't make signature beers due to hops not being available. They can't substitute and just tell the customer that's all they had to work with.

That's true! I have heard of pro brewers paying through the nose for Simcoe!! They don't have a choice. Of course the beer drinker ends up paying for it in the end.
 
I just loaded up on 4lbs of simcoe and 1.5lbs of Amarillo. Remember also that it takes approx 3 years for new fields to produce. I've tasted falconers flight and it's pretty good blend. The newest blend from Hopunion is Zythos, it's intended for IPAs.
 
I was at my LHBS the other day and heard them telling someone how they had already sold out of their allowable order of amarillo. They said that amarillo and simcoe were sold out at they're distributor and that New Belgium brewing co had purchased over 60% of the crop that particular distributor got. No big deal for me, I still have over a pound of each in the freezer, so I just quietly chuckled and continued weighing my grains.
 
Like Simcoe, don't much care for Amarillo - in any case life goes on and I can survive with Centennial, etc. Last year I chased the Simcoe, not going to bother this time.
 
Freshops has Citra and Simcoe available. I already brewed an IPA with Citra in it from this year's crop! I bet they will go fast. Also label peelers has Simcoe pellets quite cheap.
 
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