New poster here, but I thought I'd add my thoughts.
I manage a small homebrew supply shop for Ice Harbor Brewing, and what I'm hearing doesn't make me happy (I'm in the middle of re-pricing my current hop inventory as I type this...)
FWIW, I too have heard that the 2006 crop is gone, and what suppliers/distributors have in stock is about it until Late November/December, when the leaf varieties of the 2007 hop crop come in. 2007 Pellets aren't expected to be WIDELY available until the middle of December.
As for availability, I'd direct you to
this letter on the Brewer's Supply Group website; it explains things very well, and very starkly. I've been unable to get Cascade pellets for more than 10 weeks now; Liberty, Hallertaur, and Willamette are also difficult to come by. It would appear that both the 2007 and 2008 crops are pretty much gone to existing contracts, so anyone hoping to find MORE available is PROBABLY going to be out of luck. There will be supplies, but...
I haven't had the problem yet, but I've noticed that my suppliers are limiting hop purchases - some to a % of the total order, some by variety and total weight. To give you an idea, our brewers were paying in the vicinity of $4-$5/lb. for Cascades in 2007; the 2008 price (2007 crop) s almost $12/lb; local breweries have spent over$20/lb on the spot market in the past 8 weeks or so - if they can find them.
And lo! I happened into a small amount of Cascade pellets - and they're costing ME the rough equivalent of $18-$20/lb.
It does seem that hop growers are optimistic about the supply of "Lesser-used" varieties - Amarillo, Cluster, Crystal, Horizon, etc., so those may be available next year at reasonable prices. On the other hand, if people start going for those en masse to replace their standard hops, expect availability to drop and prices to rise.
With apologies to Charlie Papazian, What I've been telling my local homebrewers is that 2008 will be the year to relax,
EXPERIMENT, and have a homebrew!
Hope this helps folks out!
Rich