someone posted on another forum:
"Centennials, US Fuggles and Willamette were being brought to HopUnion this week when I was there. They were sending out a bunch of fresh Cent to breweries this week for wet hop harvest ales.
Walked through some fields yesterday and the crop looked good. I think the farm I was at (Loftus) said Cascade was next... They 're hoping Palisades catches on with craft brewers as it yields very well.
US acreage went up, but it was mostly centered around a few varieties. Expect some cheap Cascades as they think they're going to be well overstocked ...
I also found out why Willamette costs nothing right now... AB bought 95% of the crop and used to ask to keep an extra 12-18 months worth on hand in case something went wrong. After the merger with InBev, the company has been streamlining and now only want a 3-6 month carryover, so there's TONS of excess. Many farmers might not even touch them because it'd be cheaper not to harvest.
They're still not sure how much damage happened to the German crop from the hail storm but they don't expect any shortages as they also increased acreage I think they said...
Not hops, but according to Briess, this might be the best looking crop of US barley in years and even with planting down last year they expect malt overstocks. They said to expect next year maybe a 15% decrease in price, though this was to pro contracts so I don't know how it will relate to the homebrew world. Canadian planting was down 8%, lowest planted since late 60's. Some weather issues and late planting made the quality very mixed, expect higher protein and maybe uneven looking kernels. Europe looks good this year... Australia looking great with 13% increase."