Hop prices are too damn high!

[Peruvian802]

I've been shopping around for pounds of hops this fall and am shocked at how expensive certain hops have gotten (amarillo, citra, etc). I realize these are 'hot' right now, but wow, they some are about $10 more a pound this year.

I know the weather in the PNW was rough in 2015 and assume that's part of the issue (low supply?) but has the demand for these gotten so high that homebrew shops can charge so much?

Wow!

 

[Sailingeric]

Cost of making beer vs buying it in the store, you are still ahead of the game.

 

[CA_Mouse]

Fires earlier this year and drier temperatures resulted in lower yields. Then the contracts still have to get filled first. After that, home brewers get what is left. The larger HBS get their contract first and we all know that they generally have higher prices and rarely do pound or more sizes. That leaves anything else that did not sell from the distributors, for home brewers that buy in bulk.

You can check out Label Peelers they have a lot of older hops for sale right now.

 

[kh54s10]

Buy the less popular kinds.... I use Farmhouse Brewing Supply and scroll down the list of 4 ounce packages. I like a lot of different hops to select from so 1 or 2 packages of a kind is usually enough for most. I do get pounds of my most often used ones.

I look at the price and skip the pricey ones. I then look at the description of any that look interesting. Some are very similar to the popular types. I have 20 types in my freezer right now.

 

[Hello]

Defiitely look at ones that are less popular. The characteristics of Citra may be found in another hop or at least some of the basic characteristics. Unless you are trying to clone a recipe, you have quite a bit of choices.

 

[m00ps]

yeah, I buy almost all my hops from farmhouse. While stuff like citra and amarillo may be expensive, a lot of newer hops are still about $1.00-$1.25 per oz. Especially the experimental ones since they havent become widely known yet

 

[Aristotelian]

Buy the less popular kinds.... I use Farmhouse Brewing Supply and scroll down the list of 4 ounce packages. I like a lot of different hops to select from so 1 or 2 packages of a kind is usually enough for most. I do get pounds of my most often used ones.

I look at the price and skip the pricey ones. I then look at the description of any that look interesting. Some are very similar to the popular types. I have 20 types in my freezer right now.

Just ordered a bunch of 4 oz packages from them myself. I went with 2015 Azacca instead of Citra or Amarillo. Can't wait to get them and try them out. Very reasonable shipping costs too. Up to 8 oz for $3 and 16 oz for $5 I believe.

 

[wrongcrowdbrewing]

Just ordered a bunch of 4 oz packages from them myself. I went with 2015 Azacca instead of Citra or Amarillo. Can't wait to get them and try them out. Very reasonable shipping costs too. Up to 8 oz for $3 and 16 oz for $5 I believe.

i love azzacca, just bought 2lbs for 8$ each. fruit was very mild, strong wnough alpha to provide decent bitterness. smash recipe with munich/azacca was my best beer yet. hopsdirect always has a couple varieties for under 10$. shipping is pricey so I make sure to buy 9 or 10lbs at a time and the shipping is more appropriate.

 

[JohnnyBrewGood]

nikobrew.com

 

[Homercidal]

It's a bad season for most hops. I'm definitely going to try to use the hops I grew this year as much as possible.

Still have to pay for those varieties I can't grow myself.

 

[Grannyknot]

We just had harvest season for most of the American varieties, so those are in high demand as fresh hops.
Give it a few months and you'll gradually see lower prices on all of them.