what is a fair price for pick your own hops?

Like it says in the title what is a fair price for a "pick your own hops?"

I saw an ad on CL about come pick your own hops so I called her for more info. She said that this is their first year growing hops and the have one of the Noble hops but she couldn't remember what it was off the top of her head but they are excited about their new crop. She also said that they want about 3 dollars an oz for me to come out there and pick my own. I thought this was a little much for wet hops. What is a fair price to offer her since we are both new to this?

Thank you in advance for all your comments.

P.S. I hope I put this in the right section please move it if it belongs elsewhere thank you.

 

Somewhere between free and a dollar an ounce, or maybe ten dollars a pound. I can buy nice quality pellets for a less than a dollar an ounce shipped to my door FWIW.

Picking and drying a pound of hops must be some work I'd imagine.

 

3 buck an oz is pretty bad. I figure if you want to go "pick your own" you should probably just start "growing your own" then pick till you hearts content. It's not that hard.

 

$3 an ounce is a rip off. Do you know now many ounces that will be dried? Do you have any idea how much work it is to pick hops?

I'd say $3 a POUND is closer to being worth it.

 

Without knowing what hop it is I would only be interested if it was free. You may make a batch and decide you hate it!

As others have stated you can get pellet hops for around a dollar an ounce. With them you know the AA level. With the pick yourself hops you will have to dry them and you will not know the AA level.

 

+1.

Although, part of the attraction is to brew a wet hop beer, but even at that I can get Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial, Citra, and Simcoe wet and fresh from my LHBS for $0.95/oz.

 

You should get a price BREAK for saving her the labor of picking.

RIP OFF. 1st clue: doesn't even know what type of hops? Awesome, yeah, solid grower there.

 

Around $2 lb if you are picking them yourself

 

I'm guessing the person who posted the ad is not the same person who planted them, because she doesn't seem to know much from a home brewers perspective. You never know, could be that she is trying to unload them because her ex started them and is now out of the picture.
Couldn't hurt to try to educate her a bit as to what she's got, and what you as a homebrewer would be willing to pay. (assuming they are of a quality and variety you're intersted in) Let her know that you can place an order over the internet in 2 minutes and be guaranteed quality/freshness for 1/3rd of what she's asking. As mytquinn stated, if you have to pick your own, why wouldn't you just grow your own for free? No need to waste anyones time with a trip to find out her product doesn't meet your expectations.

It's a cool idea, but PYO hops has a tiny appeal base compared to fruit and vegatables.

 

Hey, if you're picking your own, pick some of the plant while you're at it and start growing your own.

 

To give you an idea of the hand pick labor that goes into a pound of hops, it took two of us about 4 hours to pick 25 pounds of wet hops from 12 bines, another few hours to dry and package them, to net 6 pounds of dry. Thats nearly 2 hours labor per pound dry. So what is your time worth? At $10/hr, I figure you break even if you didn't pay anything. You have to do it for fun. Not knowing exactly what kind....I wouldn't pay a penny. Knowing what kind and specifically wanting that kind, I wouldn't pay much more.....

 

Agreed...but let's do the math. And here I'm assuming this is someone growing commercially that intends to commercially harvest someday to sell on the open market. If it is someone with a plant in their backyard, they should just be happy someone is picking.


In our courses this is the breakdown we give for 1 acre of hops, ignoring establishment costs:

Productions (nutrient, water, etc.): 2k
Processing (testing, pelletizing, packaging, etc.): 7.5k
Harvest costs (variable depending on labor vs. mechanical): 2k to 6k

Total: $11,500 to $15,500/year

Assume 1500 pounds production at $15/lb = $22,500

Net ~ $9,000 but that doesn't include an initial investment of $10k to establish the yard, $1k to $4k for an oast...and anywhere from $13k to $100k for harvesting equipment.


Since you are supplying the harvest, drying and there is no processing (I'm assuming that if she can't tell you the variety, she also can't tell you alpha acid level.) or packaging, the total cost of production would be around $2k.

If she still wanted to make the same profit off that acre, that would mean she needs $2,000 + $9,000 = $11,000. Again, assuming that she gets 1500 pounds/acre, that is a selling price of $7.33/pound. But that is dried.

Since we know that dried hops weigh approximately 21.7% of wet hops, the price per pound wet would be $7.33/pound x .217 = $1.59/pound. Per ounce, that would be 10 cents/ounce.

OK, $2/pound is being a bit generous. $3/ounce is highway ****ing robbery.

 

Pariah:
Yes true

 

Also there are hops that are for ornamental usage that have no value at all for home brewing if I am not mistaken.

Again, Free! or I would pass them up, not knowing the variety.

 

I like Dan's breakdown, it helps a lot. Arrowhead - Dan calculated for a dried product when he multiplied 7.33 x .217.

One thing that hasn't been brought up yet is that you are getting a product that is fresh and hasn't been dried, meaning you can dry it to your specs if you want to. Lupulin doesn't do well with high temperatures and some companies dry and pelletize their hops at very high temperatures. So you could be getting a better product than the better priced pelletized hops you would buy from a no name online. On the other hand, I heard that first year hops can be lacking in flavor and acidity.

I think she will be happy to get anything so propose a cheap amount and if you can't get it for cheap, walk away.

 

thank you everyone for your input. I will go and look it's a hobby and I don't mind spending time and money on it, but I don't want to be a sucker either. If she doesn't go down in price I will walk away. Thank you everyone for the insight.

 

Maybee if she was really good looking. Or if she supplied free beer of a good caliber. Other wise no.

 

Ok, the price just skyrocketed For $3 i might spend all day picking an ounce...

Seriously, hops are a weed of sorts...the price you pay is mostly for harvest, drying, packaging and delivery. On the vine, they are practically worthless IMO. As a hobbyist, whatever motivates ya is what they are worth.

 

Which LHBS??

 

Brew Brothers

 

There's a local farm here in the Nashville area growing hops for Yazoo for a special run of their beer. On the farm's website they are advertising they have extra hops from that harvest for homebrewers. I emailed and they want $4/oz. for WET hops (which equates to about $16/oz for dry). And they said they don't even know what hops they have!

 

> And they said they don't even know what hops they have!

They don't know the variety? Sounds bogus. No commercial brewery would purchase hops without knowing the acid content.

Plus - I wouldn't even pay $4/oz for dried, packaged hops shipped to my door...

 

That is a crazy price

 

Yazoo thinks they are galena and cascade, according to their facebook page.
Here's the story on Yazoo's blog:
http://yazoobrew.blogspot.com/2012/09/some-freshly-picked-local-hops-heading.html
It's for their "Bells Bend Preservation Ale".

And Bells Bend's website:
http://www.bellsbendfarms.com/calendar/2nd-annual-hops-fest-and-square-dance

I talked with Eric at Bells Bend Farm directly via email and this is an exact quote from the email:
"We harvested the remaining hops for Yazoo last week. We have some in the fridge that I can get you, but the variety is unknown. They are an heirloom variety from E. TN that someone gave to us. They smell great."

 

It's great that Yazoo is using local hops, but that price is still bogus for an unknown variety.

Neither cascade or galena can even be remotely considered an heirloom variety as both are still commercially grown. Galena wasn't introduced until 1978.

 

Maybe Eric was saying the hops for Yazoo were no longer available but they have the unknown heirloom variety available.
Yeah, still $4 for wet hops is crazy.

 

local to portland u pick prices from 2 people on craigslist-

1 gallon 5 bucks, $15 for a 5 gallon bucket

$5.00/lb.

I just finished clearing out about 8 bines worth from a guys back yard today and paid nothing but a pliny i gave him as thanks.

lots of free or trade for beer hops as well, granted we are in a growing region, but at 3/lb you are looking at around $15/oz dry... too much

 

Go pick a crapload of hops, and tell her you misheard and you thought it was "free" dollars per ounce. Because for $3 and ounce wet you'd have to have your head examined.

 

One of the local hop growers here in frederick md. Just put out the offer. At .25$/oz. everyone in the homebrew club was pretty happy w that. Pick you own. He kinda just through it out there. He already harvested most of his crop and sold it and didnt feel like harvesting anymore.

 

I have so been there. Back when we picked everything by hand, somewhere around the 6th 12 hour day, you just don't care anymore. If someone would have offered us $.25/oz, we would have been overjoyed to let them pick all they wanted.

 

Do you know how he’s calculating the weight? Is that .25/oz. for wet/ fresh hops or is he dividing the wet/ fresh weight by 5 to get a fair dry weight estimate and its .25/oz. on that number?

 

at .25/oz that comes out to about 1.00/oz dry, still fairer than 3.00/oz !

 

Thats $.25 per oz wet id assume. Since people r picking and leaving. Which isnt really bad if ur planning a fresh hop ale of somesort. Atleast i dont think. And most people on the hop threads grow hops. I know a hell of a lot of people that dont grow and pay $3 and oz for pellets all day long for brew day. So i say $.25/oz is nothing for these folks. Brewimg a fresh beer is about the ingredients. Kinda like organic chefs. U pay a little extra for a quality product. Might be just me but thats how i feel.

Cheers!!

 

This.

 

It's not so bad, that would make dry about $18-$20lb.

 

And this is a organic farm. So that is an added quality