It only took me until the first snow day to finish, but I have completed my Fresh Hop project. I tracked 256 beers from 165 breweries and 12 states/territories this year; I know there are more FH beers out there, but I had to stop sometime and I feel like I got a significant sample size. I got a 60% response rate from the breweries I contacted, which I think is pretty good since I was mostly "cold calling" for info they didn't necessarily release publicly. Hopefully I'll match or improve that when I bug these people again next year.
Notes
Limitations: 1) Obviously, I was limited by which breweries responded with info and which didn't, so any trends could be skewed by those who didn't respond. I could have done more to chase the non-responders, but I followed up with every lack of response at least once, and generally contacted through social media/marketing/PR avenues, so I think if they wanted to offer the info, they had the opportunity to do so. 2) I tried to be accurate and stick to info confirmed by the breweries, but this was a recreational project done occasionally under the influence, so some errors are bound to be lurking in there. 3) I did not have the resources to account for volume, so Sierra Nevada's or Deschutes' FH beers are counted the same as a beer from Holy Mountain or Old Town as far as these stats are concerned. This is especially relevant when looking at most frequent hop varieties and sources.
Of the beers I tracked, 72.2% used some dried hops in addition to fresh hops, 32.6% were single hop beers (either a single fresh hop or the same varietal dried hop used), 14.8% of the beers were bottled/canned. OR hops were used in 45.7% of the beers I tracked, and WA hops in 42.9% of the beers.
Top Hop Varieties Used (some beers used more than one varietal)
Cascade (used in 21.1% of beers tracked)
Centennial
Chinook
Citra
Crystal
Mosaic
Nugget
Simcoe
Top Hop Sources (some beers used hops from more than one source)
Carpenter Farms
Community-Sourced (5.2% of beers tracked)
Crosby Hop Farm
Virgil Gamache Farms
Goschie Farms
Loftus Ranches
Other (estate-grown, private family, wild-grown)
Sodbuster
I tried to make some basic observations, but if anyone has any questions I'd be happy to share other stats/analysis too.
Notes
Limitations: 1) Obviously, I was limited by which breweries responded with info and which didn't, so any trends could be skewed by those who didn't respond. I could have done more to chase the non-responders, but I followed up with every lack of response at least once, and generally contacted through social media/marketing/PR avenues, so I think if they wanted to offer the info, they had the opportunity to do so. 2) I tried to be accurate and stick to info confirmed by the breweries, but this was a recreational project done occasionally under the influence, so some errors are bound to be lurking in there. 3) I did not have the resources to account for volume, so Sierra Nevada's or Deschutes' FH beers are counted the same as a beer from Holy Mountain or Old Town as far as these stats are concerned. This is especially relevant when looking at most frequent hop varieties and sources.
Of the beers I tracked, 72.2% used some dried hops in addition to fresh hops, 32.6% were single hop beers (either a single fresh hop or the same varietal dried hop used), 14.8% of the beers were bottled/canned. OR hops were used in 45.7% of the beers I tracked, and WA hops in 42.9% of the beers.
Top Hop Varieties Used (some beers used more than one varietal)
Cascade (used in 21.1% of beers tracked)
Centennial
Chinook
Citra
Crystal
Mosaic
Nugget
Simcoe
Top Hop Sources (some beers used hops from more than one source)
Carpenter Farms
Community-Sourced (5.2% of beers tracked)
Crosby Hop Farm
Virgil Gamache Farms
Goschie Farms
Loftus Ranches
Other (estate-grown, private family, wild-grown)
Sodbuster
I tried to make some basic observations, but if anyone has any questions I'd be happy to share other stats/analysis too.
