The hop shortage

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Good thing I got this out of the way this year then :D

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just received my 20 lbs from hops direct last week - planning another 20 lb buy - couple that with a pallet buy in november - i think i'll be stting prettyin 08. and yes i have plenty of guns and ammo if any of you get any ideas :D
 
brewhead said:
just received my 20 lbs from hops direct last week - planning another 20 lb buy - couple that with a pallet buy in november - i think i'll be stting prettyin 08. and yes i have plenty of guns and ammo if any of you get any ideas :D
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Jeezum Crowe! 40 pounds of hops? Even 20. I hope it don't turn around and bite you in the ass by going bad before you use the first 5 pounds.;)
 
brewhead said:
just received my 20 lbs from hops direct last week - planning another 20 lb buy - couple that with a pallet buy in november - i think i'll be stting prettyin 08. and yes i have plenty of guns and ammo if any of you get any ideas :D
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How much beer do you brew:drunk:
 
Evets said:
Jeezum Crowe! 40 pounds of hops? Even 20. I hope it don't turn around and bite you in the ass by going bad before you use the first 5 pounds.;)
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it usually doesent. i parcel it out in food saver bags

this is box one of a two box shipment:

hop_shortage%20029a.jpg


How much beer do you brew:drunk:
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let's put me in the "prolific" catigory :D
 
brewhead said:
just received my 20 lbs from hops direct last week - planning another 20 lb buy - couple that with a pallet buy in november - i think i'll be stting prettyin 08. and yes i have plenty of guns and ammo if any of you get any ideas :D
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Is this how much you usually buy or are you hoarding?
 
In the Wild Speculation, poorly researched conspiracy theory category -

Is it possible that after recognizeing the market conditions, (by the way barley supply is short also), that the Giant Corporate Monster saw an opportunity to clear some market niche?

If one believes this blog: http://blog.oregonlive.com/thebeerhere/2007/11/hops_barley_supply_tightens_an.html, then there will be casualties... extinctions even.

It looks like the Big Guys are getting into the craft brewer market - in their mass-market way... It's a dog-eat-dog world... I don't have the slightest shred of evidence that there is any corporate aggression, but I wouldn't be suprised...
 
jfliv said:
In the Wild Speculation, poorly researched conspiracy theory category -
It looks like the Big Guys are getting into the craft brewer market - in their mass-market way... It's a dog-eat-dog world... I don't have the slightest shred of evidence that there is any corporate aggression, but I wouldn't be suprised...
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Well, I would tend to believe that a little bit since I saw a commercial for a "hand crafted" style beer from one of the big brewers. I think it may have been Miller. I don't think there will be extinctions though. If it were that bad you would be hearing a lot of crying and whining from environmentalists, rather than us homebrewers. I would be willing to bet that you see some of the bigger companies coming out with pilsners, hefs, wheats, german style lagers, stouts etc etc etc and it starts to come out of the woodwork that the commercial brewers took it upon themselves to compete with Sams b/c hey, everyone knows that Sams is going to start kicking Buds ass sooner or later and they need to start doing something about it before it's too late.
 
I don't think there will be extinctions though. If it were that bad you would be hearing a lot of crying and whining from environmentalists, rather than us homebrewers.
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I meant small brewers going out of business, not hops becoming extinct... sorry for the confusion.
 
brewhead said:
just received my 20 lbs from hops direct last week - planning another 20 lb buy - couple that with a pallet buy in november - i think i'll be stting prettyin 08. and yes i have plenty of guns and ammo if any of you get any ideas :D
Click to expand...
Most quoted comment in this thread!!! Just wanted to say you are a man after my own heart! I just wish I had the hops to go with my guns!
 
Damn. I better run down to the local ubrew and see if he has raised his prices much yet. He sells me pellets for 2 cents a gram. Usually buy 300-1000 grams at a time. Proably go theough 5 or 6 kilos a year. Though not 2007 since I was unable to brew from august till..well.. now. :(
I'm so sad... sniff..
 
well, our club has some very prolific brewers. we are constantly doing big brews - hop bombs and the like - we also trade em around like currency when the going gets rough eh
 
I placed an order with Hops Direct and got this email in reply. Seems everyone is stocking up. I think there is a lot of panic hoarding going on.

HopsDirect.com said:
Hello folks,

We’re very sorry to have to email everyone a generic note….but we have been simply slammed with hop orders!

As we have tried to get back in the saddle this week we’ve been saturated with an historic number of emails and orders…..and are struggling to get an answer to each and every one of you. We sincerely believe in true customer service so please bear with us.

As was posted on the web and on our answering system, we were closed over Christmas/New Years to give our crew time with family and to travel thru January 3rd…so we are now in the process of taking care of orders on a first come first-serve basis; All orders and inquiries will be taken care of but just a bit slower than we typically turn items around.

Our apology for this but we have had a very unusual year as we’re sure you well know but we wanted to get a reply out ASAP.

Give us a few days and hopefully we’ll get these 2008 hop orders up and running.

Kind regards from
all of us at….
HOPS Direct, LLC.
www.hopsdirect.com
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everyone that has don business with hopsdirect got that email. they ahve been swamped due to holidays and time off. my suggestion is give them some praise if you feel so inclined. it goes a long way. hops direct has always taken care of us in a good way. they are good ppl.
 
fresh hops down to a scant 12 varities and going quickly - ahb down to 10 varieties...it's the final count down.

dibs on cluster muhahahahaha
 
brewhead said:
fresh hops down to a scant 12 varities and going quickly - ahb down to 10 varieties...it's the final count down.

dibs on cluster muhahahahaha
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Glad I got a small stock of Cascades, Centennial, Chinook, EKG and a few others from FresHops just a few weeks ago. However now I am concerned I did not buy enough. May have to make a few more Scottish Ales and other malty styles this year than originally planned. :)
I've also got plans for experimenting with a gruit in the near future. If that works well I will have another alternative. :D
Seriously I will probably be a little more conservative with the hops when making my IPAs this year to try to stretch my supply of popular hops.

Craig
 
Dan Weirback, president of Weyerbacher Brewing discusses the impact of the hop shortage:

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/col...__For_brewers__not_a_very_hoppy_new_year.html

snip:

Q: Let's get a little more specific here. What are your hops costs on Hops Infusion?

A: Normally I don't like to talk about the amount of ingredients we put into our beers - that's proprietary. But we use about 60 pounds of hops for a 20-barrel batch, which makes about 250 cases. Before, that 60 pounds cost us $300. It's now $1,200. So the impact on Hops Infusion is $3.75 a case, just for the hops. And Double Simcoe is a lot worse.
 
Does anyone know if the 2007 harvest is in? Is it really gone that fast or are we waiting for processing still?
 
I'm not sure if this has been posted yet, but I found this on the Midwest Supplies Website:


Update 1/6/2008

Dear Midwest Customers,

Things are finally starting to fall in to place for our 2008 selection of hops. The varieties that we thought we were going to be able to get changed almost on a weekly basis. The one thing that we do know for sure is that we will have plenty of hops for all of 2008. The homebrewing industry is still trying to figure out if hops will be available by the pound early in 2008. There is some panic buying of hops by some homebrewers. There is concern that if hops are sold by the pound in early 2008 that panic buying might affect the availability of some varieties by summer time.

Here is a list of pellet hops that we fell confident we will have in stock for all of 2008.
Cascade, Clusters, Columbus, Glacier, German Tradition, Liberty, Mt. Hood, Perle, US Saaz, US Spalt, US Goldings, Sterling, Vanguard and Willamette.

Leaf hops for 2008 include: Glacier, Perle, US Goldings, Sterling and Vanguard.

Hops that will not be available or in short supply include: Amarillo, Centennial, Challenger, Chinook, Fuggle, Hallertau, Kent Golding, Northern Brewer, Nugget, Czech Saaz, Styrian Goldings, Target, Tettnang, Yakima Magnum, Simcoe, Horizon, Progress, First Gold, and Bramling Cross.

Hop Plug Update coming by the end of January.

This might have been worse if not for the kind folks at Hop Union in Yakima, Washington. Ralph and his crew kept the homebrew industry in mind when allocating their hops. Their commitment to the homebrewing industry help save 1000's of jobs this year.

Thanks Hop Union, the crew and customers from Midwest Homebrewing Supplies.
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Hi all, just an FYI...

I had emailed hopsdirect with a couple of questions and received an reply tonight saying that they are currently conducting an inventory and fulfilling their contractual obligations and that they're very limited as far as stock goes. They did say to check back on their website at the end of January as they hope to be caught up and have a few more varieties to sell again. What they are selling now and what will be available later is "left over" 2007 harvest. (I had asked if everything they were selling now was 2007 or if they had some 2006 left over).

I had placed an order with freshops a few days ago for several pounds that I hope will come through. Although a little smaller now, they do still have a decent selection today.

Also, if you do find some bulk and need a vac sealer, check out Target/WalMart in the section where Zip-Lock bags are sold... Look for the Reynolds Handi-Vac... It's only about $9.00! My test of it on a bag of marshmallows was promising. :)

Good luck!!
Jason
 
What about the pellets I found "factory" sealed in the back of my freezer for the past 2 years... any good? I understand the desperation of this question, but... brother's gotta brew! :mug:
 
Southwood said:
What about the pellets I found "factory" sealed in the back of my freezer for the past 2 years... any good? I understand the desperation of this question, but... brother's gotta brew! :mug:
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If they're yellow or don't smell tasty then they're bad. Otherwise, use 'em quick or they will go bad.
 
Can anyone tell me if there'd be any viable alpha/beta acids in my hops if I skimmed them off from my beer (cleaned them, of course, without washing out all the good stuff) and stored them for my next brew? Hops are really expensive and I'm starting to hurt for some good aroma hops, just have the alpha acid hops right now, so I'm looking for a way to stretch my green gold a littler farther. :confused:
 
I don't think you can reuse hops. Just brew beers with less hops.

Fresh Hops is selling.
https://commerce.peak.org/vh/f/fres...all&template=Templates/hops_storebuilder.html


Product Number Description Price Quantity Ordered
2007 Cascade (max. 8 oz.) $2.00
2006 Cascade (max. 16 oz.) $1.90
Crystal hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Fuggle hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Liberty hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Mt. Hood hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
2006 Northern Brewer (max. 16 oz.) $1.90
Nugget hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Sorachi Ace hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Sterling hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Summit Hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Willamette hops $1.70
Organic New Zealand Hallertauer hops $2.00
organic Pacific Gem hops $2.00


There prices just went up.
 
Wow, that's the best prices I've seen in a while, but it's still nothing nothing to sneeze at when you're pitching 3-4 oz. per batch. I'm tempted to order from them, but aren't whole hops a worse deal than pellets in regard to weight-utilization ratio?

Hm. Maybe I'll work on a lambic or other non-hop intensive Belgians.
 
EinGutesBier said:
Wow, that's the best prices I've seen in a while, but it's still nothing nothing to sneeze at when you're pitching 3-4 oz. per batch. I'm tempted to order from them, but aren't whole hops a worse deal than pellets in regard to weight-utilization ratio?

Hm. Maybe I'll work on a lambic or other non-hop intensive Belgians.
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When I'm done brewing I use a funnel with a screen. Some people just put the hole hops in a hop bag.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=6451
 
EinGutesBier said:
Wow, that's the best prices I've seen in a while, but it's still nothing nothing to sneeze at when you're pitching 3-4 oz. per batch. I'm tempted to order from them, but aren't whole hops a worse deal than pellets in regard to weight-utilization ratio?

Hm. Maybe I'll work on a lambic or other non-hop intensive Belgians.
Click to expand...
3-4 oz? wow

i think my recent blood ale is the first beer i've used more than 1.5 oz of hops in for about the last year.

most german and belgian beers do not have alot of hops. go for some belgians, hefeweizens, milds, etc. and you don't have to use much.

stay away from american pales and ipas and buy some high alpha hops for bittering

you can't reuse hops
 
I put in an order for hops at Defalco's. Never used them before but they were the only ones that had the verieties I was looking for. They canceled my order and sent me this email.

I am sorry to say we cannot process your order at this time.
Because of the worldwide hop shortage, we are limiting hop orders,
both in terms of quantity and nature. We can only ship hops in
proportion to malt and yeast, etc. Selling all of our hops by June
would help us in the short run, but we would have to shut the doors
after that. No one is going to buy malt, yeast, caps, sanitizer,
etc. from us if we don't have hops to sell along with them.
Obviously this is not a decision we make lightly. We not in the
business to turn away orders, but desperate times call for desperate
measures. Hopefully, once the 2007 hops are released in any kind of
quantity, supplies will loosen up a bit. Until then, we're going to
have to be circumspect in our hop shipments.

Regards,
Scott Birdwell
DeFalco's



This blows..............
 
/\/\/\/\

That's what my LHBS told me to.

They had some Saaz for a beer I was going to brew in the near future. the guy told me no hops unless you buy every thing else I seid all right and went somware else.
 
This hop shortage cannot be good for the HBSes even if they can make a bigger profit on hops. If they are in real danger of running out of hops they have several choices none of which is going to be taken well by customers.
They can limit quantities or tie it to grain purchases and still keep the prices reasonable, which seems to be the most common solution. This loses some customers but allows them to continue to serve their repeat customers for the year.
They can price the hops really high with no discount for volume to reduce demand but this is usually seen as taking advantage of customers and likely to lose even more long term customers.
Or they can run out and not be able to supply customers for a long stretch of time until more hops becomes available.
This may close the doors of many struggling HBS.
Craig
 

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