Cheap, Smaller Quantity Hop Orders

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smata67

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Sometimes between larger brew supply orders, there is a need to obtain smaller quantities of hops for a specific recipe that pops out of nowhere and grabs one’s fancy. These are hard to justify obtaining from Yakima Valley and similar hops suppliers that have good pricing, but only on 8+ ounces and beg for a large order to spread out the shipping costs. So what to do? Amazon and EBay sometimes come through. But not always.

I found some decent pricing at Yakima Chief Hops. Not great, but decent. The beauty of it is the free shipping. But selection is limited. So if you find sources that fulfill the requirement of being cheap for small orders, please post your findings here. Here is what Yakima Chief is currently offering:

Cascade: .99/ 2 oz package. Free shipping.
Centennial 2.99/ 2 oz package. Free shipping.
They have an assortment of 3.99/ 2 oz packages with the free shipping. Not a bad deal at all on the more pricey hops such as Mosaic and Simcoe, these are going for $30/lb shipped now. Deal not so hot on the others. Right now, these include: Ahtanum, Azacca, Cluster, Mosaic, Warrior, Chinook, Loral, Amarillo, Eukanot, Centennial, Sabro, Palisade, and Simcoe. But if you need a couple of ounces of these, you’d be hard pressed to find them this cheap shipped.

Also, of interest may be the “American Noble Hops” deal with Mosaic and Simcoe. These are debittered hops (alpha acids removed for their cryo line). So they are low alpha acid, but are supposed to preserve at least some of the flavor and aroma. These are at 1.99 for 2 oz. These could be used in conjunction with a clean bittering hop or in non-hop forward beers, maybe an American Lager.

Yakima Chief has a batch search option where you can look up info on whatever hops you end up with, including production year and bitterness. I believe the red packages are exclusively 2018 and 2019. If you end up with the green packages (I certainly hope they all come red), then you are looking at 2017 and prior. My LHBS has almost all green packages of the older YCH brand (they changed to Yakima Chief Hops for 2018). And they charge 2.00+ per oz, typically. At least they have kept them frozen.

I have always liked Yakima Chief's variety descriptions, included because everyone should know about this resource. The best presentation of relevant hop info that I have come across.
 

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Ok, I couldn't resist 8 oz of cascade for $4 shipped, tossed in some other goodies in the cart and hit the pay button on Sunday. Shipped on Monday, arrived today Tuesday. Washington to Georgia overnight. Kind of ridiculous in these trying times, but I'll take it. All the batch codes have these as 2018. You can look up the specs by batch-- the obvious ones, as well as the different oil percentages and even the Hop Storage Index. I'll be checking their stock every now and then. I like the bright red packaging, good move to abandon the nondescript green and white.

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I bought a bunch of the cascade from there last year. Amazing deal, getting it at 50 cents a pound, free shipping, without having to deal with a big 1-lb bag.
 
I ordered Saturday night and they arrived today (Tuesday). I wanted some bittering hops to go with all the fruity ones I have. Can't beat the free shipping for a small amount.
 
That’s pretty sweet. Gonna look into it as I do half batches and having to buy pounds or halves is wasteful.
 
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