Citra Hops Unavailable After This Year?!!!

[BonnieJ]

I'm sure if the demand is there, then they will dedicate more acreage. It could be that the 2011 crop is all but spoken for, but if they can sell more in 2012, and demand props up the prices, you better believe someone will find more space to grow more.

This is not necessarily true, I don't think. If there is more money in selling very large quantities to a big company for a premium because it will not be available to anyone else (IE, signature hop), don't think they'll sell to the little man for less.

I wish I could think better of corporations, but in the end they'll do whatever brings them the most profit financially, not what brings the most people the best hops.

 

[beersteiner2345]

This doesn't necessarily mean Citra's are gone. One big company has agreed with the farmer to buy all the hops they produce at X price. farmer is happy, he got what he needs and is sure everything is being sold and knows years in advance what his profits should be. This doesn't mean that said brewer can't turn around and sell them out to whomever he choses at X price + 200%. If there is such a great demand, they will all sell, and he has made a big profit on them.

Ding ding ding.

Secondary revenue stream for a brewery much?

 

[bob1852]

They were just giving away 2 or 4 oz packs of Citra pellets at the NHC in an obvious promotion. The G/F and I each nabbed some. I doubt they'd promote a hop at a home brewers convention that is going to be all but unavailable to the home brewing community.

I was just thinking the same thing reading this...

 

[Beezy]

Just picked up some citra. Smells so good...

 

[weirdboy]

I call BS. HopUnion was literally giving away packages of Citra hops at NHC. I don't think they'd do that if there was a shortage.

 

[jtakacs]

i love it when supply controls demand... (heavy sarcasm)

 

[Hawaiianbrewer]

It has a lot to do with where the LHBS in question buys hops from. They don't get them from the farmer's muddy hands. They go through one of a few distributors. Believe it or not (sarcasm) a LHBS doesn't demand enough volume to buy bales straight off the back of the tractor. My personal LHBS uses 3 hops suppliers that I know of, and that's irregular for this town. Most only go through one.

It's entirely possible that the LHBS from the OP's story only has a single supplier who contracted all of their citra to some brewery, and therefore that LHBS won't have citra for a few years.

This could be. We are a small town on an island. The store is a mom and pop homebrew store, albeit a great homebrew shop which does the community a huge favor. Possibly his means of getting the hops for a few years are different than other large homebrew shops on the mainland.

Just figured the forum is for learning and sharing. Thought I'd share what I learned

 

[Beezy]

I just took a look around at the big stores and I'll be damned everyone I looked out was out of citra completely. As well as Simcoe and Amarillo. The stores I frequent, small ones have all of that in stock fwiw. Let me ask you though, is it possible that we have just reached the end of the 2010 hops supplies? And the re-up just not harvested yet?

 

[unionrdr]

I was talking to the LHBS guy,& that's the consensus. Just gotta wait till harvest time. Then you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be stocking up the freezer!

 

[MBasile]

if there's demand, they'd just grow more. What about the other big breweries that are using it now? They're just SOL because another big brewer wants to increase their order? At most, I'd guess it might be short for a year, then it would catch up.

This might have already been covered, but it takes 7 months to a year (depending on when the demand hits) for the industry to respond to increases demand.

 

[RiverCityBrewer]

I'm not worried... just bought a pound of citra and the supplier had a lot more where that came from.

 

[andysim]

I just took a look around at the big stores and I'll be damned everyone I looked out was out of citra completely. As well as Simcoe and Amarillo. The stores I frequent, small ones have all of that in stock fwiw. Let me ask you though, is it possible that we have just reached the end of the 2010 hops supplies? And the re-up just not harvested yet?

Austinhomebrew.com has citra hops

 

[Fetus]

Just bought a half pound of citra from Farmhouse brewing supply.

 

[BonnieJ]

So, did I miss the citra hops? I guess I should have been looking for them when they were being harvested, but it just occurred to me to brew with them, since I liked the beer I had a few months ago with them in it.

 

[Tim_Kreitz]

So, did I miss the citra hops? I guess I should have been looking for them when they were being harvested, but it just occurred to me to brew with them, since I liked the beer I had a few months ago with them in it.

They're mostly gone now, but you can still find them here and there. AHB still has some, but Hops Direct is sold out. I'm good for the coming year. Me and a buddy ordered a pound and split it.

Citra rules.