The hop shortage

[Southwood]

What about the pellets I found "factory" sealed in the back of my freezer for the past 2 years... any good? I understand the desperation of this question, but... brother's gotta brew!

 

[mew]

What about the pellets I found "factory" sealed in the back of my freezer for the past 2 years... any good? I understand the desperation of this question, but... brother's gotta brew!

If they're yellow or don't smell tasty then they're bad. Otherwise, use 'em quick or they will go bad.

 

[EinGutesBier]

Can anyone tell me if there'd be any viable alpha/beta acids in my hops if I skimmed them off from my beer (cleaned them, of course, without washing out all the good stuff) and stored them for my next brew? Hops are really expensive and I'm starting to hurt for some good aroma hops, just have the alpha acid hops right now, so I'm looking for a way to stretch my green gold a littler farther.

 

[Mustangj]

I don't think you can reuse hops. Just brew beers with less hops.

Fresh Hops is selling.
https://commerce.peak.org/vh/f/fres...all&template=Templates/hops_storebuilder.html


Product Number Description Price Quantity Ordered
2007 Cascade (max. 8 oz.) $2.00
2006 Cascade (max. 16 oz.) $1.90
Crystal hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Fuggle hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Liberty hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Mt. Hood hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
2006 Northern Brewer (max. 16 oz.) $1.90
Nugget hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Sorachi Ace hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Sterling hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Summit Hops (max. 16 oz.) $2.00
Willamette hops $1.70
Organic New Zealand Hallertauer hops $2.00
organic Pacific Gem hops $2.00


There prices just went up.

 

[EinGutesBier]

Wow, that's the best prices I've seen in a while, but it's still nothing nothing to sneeze at when you're pitching 3-4 oz. per batch. I'm tempted to order from them, but aren't whole hops a worse deal than pellets in regard to weight-utilization ratio?

Hm. Maybe I'll work on a lambic or other non-hop intensive Belgians.

 

[Mustangj]

Wow, that's the best prices I've seen in a while, but it's still nothing nothing to sneeze at when you're pitching 3-4 oz. per batch. I'm tempted to order from them, but aren't whole hops a worse deal than pellets in regard to weight-utilization ratio?

Hm. Maybe I'll work on a lambic or other non-hop intensive Belgians.

When I'm done brewing I use a funnel with a screen. Some people just put the hole hops in a hop bag.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=6451

 

[DeathBrewer]

Wow, that's the best prices I've seen in a while, but it's still nothing nothing to sneeze at when you're pitching 3-4 oz. per batch. I'm tempted to order from them, but aren't whole hops a worse deal than pellets in regard to weight-utilization ratio?

Hm. Maybe I'll work on a lambic or other non-hop intensive Belgians.

3-4 oz? wow

i think my recent blood ale is the first beer i've used more than 1.5 oz of hops in for about the last year.

most german and belgian beers do not have alot of hops. go for some belgians, hefeweizens, milds, etc. and you don't have to use much.

stay away from american pales and ipas and buy some high alpha hops for bittering

you can't reuse hops

 

[Finster]

I put in an order for hops at Defalco's. Never used them before but they were the only ones that had the verieties I was looking for. They canceled my order and sent me this email.

I am sorry to say we cannot process your order at this time.
Because of the worldwide hop shortage, we are limiting hop orders,
both in terms of quantity and nature. We can only ship hops in
proportion to malt and yeast, etc. Selling all of our hops by June
would help us in the short run, but we would have to shut the doors
after that. No one is going to buy malt, yeast, caps, sanitizer,
etc. from us if we don't have hops to sell along with them.
Obviously this is not a decision we make lightly. We not in the
business to turn away orders, but desperate times call for desperate
measures. Hopefully, once the 2007 hops are released in any kind of
quantity, supplies will loosen up a bit. Until then, we're going to
have to be circumspect in our hop shipments.

Regards,
Scott Birdwell
DeFalco's



This blows..............

 

[Mustangj]

/\/\/\/\

That's what my LHBS told me to.

They had some Saaz for a beer I was going to brew in the near future. the guy told me no hops unless you buy every thing else I seid all right and went somware else.

 

[CBBaron]

This hop shortage cannot be good for the HBSes even if they can make a bigger profit on hops. If they are in real danger of running out of hops they have several choices none of which is going to be taken well by customers.
They can limit quantities or tie it to grain purchases and still keep the prices reasonable, which seems to be the most common solution. This loses some customers but allows them to continue to serve their repeat customers for the year.
They can price the hops really high with no discount for volume to reduce demand but this is usually seen as taking advantage of customers and likely to lose even more long term customers.
Or they can run out and not be able to supply customers for a long stretch of time until more hops becomes available.
This may close the doors of many struggling HBS.
Craig

 

[Germey]

I'm not sure if this has been posted yet, but I found this on the Midwest Supplies Website:

Update 1/6/2008

Dear Midwest Customers...

...Hops that will not be available or in short supply include: Amarillo, Centennial, Challenger, Chinook, Fuggle, Hallertau, Kent Golding, Northern Brewer, Nugget, Czech Saaz, Styrian Goldings, Target, Tettnang, Yakima Magnum, Simcoe, Horizon, Progress, First Gold, and Bramling Cross...

Well, so much for their previous open letter assuring everyone that there will be plenty of hops and not to stock up. Sure glad I got a stash of a few items on that list. Don't know what I'll do for '09, though.

 

[DeathBrewer]

basically, everything i love. i did find a ton of hops at:

San Francisco Brewcraft

"Best selection on the west coast" and i believe it! They had everything

 

[Mustangj]

The guy at my LHBS told me it's going to be hard to find low AA hops. He also seid you will just have to use less of a higher AA. I don't know how true this is it's just what I herd.

 

[beergears]

A crazy idea, maybe, but aren't our neighbors to the south, with temperate climate, Latin America, Australia, etc, growing anything now, in their summertime..?

 

[olllllo]

A crazy idea, maybe, but aren't our neighbors to the south, with temperate climate, Latin America, Australia, etc, growing anything now, in their summertime..?

The hops market has been globalized for decades.
All of the hops growing acreage has been shrinking over the years due to economic conditions. It takes several years and a hefty investment to startup a new hops concern.

Go to the BN and listen to Ralph from Hop Union.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/archive/dwnldarchive12-02-07.mp3

 

[Finster]

This hop shortage cannot be good for the HBSes even if they can make a bigger profit on hops. If they are in real danger of running out of hops they have several choices none of which is going to be taken well by customers.
They can limit quantities or tie it to grain purchases and still keep the prices reasonable, which seems to be the most common solution. This loses some customers but allows them to continue to serve their repeat customers for the year.
They can price the hops really high with no discount for volume to reduce demand but this is usually seen as taking advantage of customers and likely to lose even more long term customers.
Or they can run out and not be able to supply customers for a long stretch of time until more hops becomes available.
This may close the doors of many struggling HBS.
Craig

I have no problem with the diminishing varieties and limited selection of hops. That will just force me to be creative. Im not afriad of tinkering with recipe's or trying new things. Thats something I'd be doing anyway, hops shortage or not. Thats half the fun. My problem is with availability. Ive come across at least a dozen hbs that will not sell hops without an order for malts, yeast, ect. In other words im pretty much screwed unless I want to shell out even more money for things I already have and dont need.

Screw it. Maybe I'll just stop using hops all together. Whats the worste thing that could happen? I end up with 5 gallons of Budwiser?

 

[Ender]

wrong thread!

 

[Beerthoven]

Well, it looks like Hops Direct is no longer taking orders. Glad I got my order in just under the wire. Its on its way from WA right now.

January 15, 2008

After taking time to review numbers & count inventory, it looks like the 2007 crop sales are done.

We had hundreds of orders, as well as emails, over the holiday break and apologize for the delay to some of you, we are just not staffed this time of year for such high volumes.

Now we are looking ahead, working on equipment for our growing season this spring. The farm has a hop combine that's been in the development stages for the last 2 years and we anticipate full use this summer...watch for photos.

Additionally, we are implementing some changes in varieties we will be growing and hope for good weather!

We certainly hope in August you venture back here and see what is going on and which domestic leaf varieties are available. Keep in mind, normal hop havesting begins here in the states about the 20th of August.

Thank you for the orders but also for the great group of people we get to work with in the homebrewing world. Your hobby is appreciated.

 

[brewhead]

We certainly hope in August you venture back here

AUGUST ppl. wow!

 

[EinGutesBier]

I am tempted to try an real old fashioned route and brew with Spruce buds. That is what they used in the days before hops.
Ben Franklin wrtote allot about using Spruce buds as they were a native crop.

Do you have any references on that? I'd like to hear more...

 

[brewt00l]

Hop availability chart from the Northern Brewer forum:

http://www.brew365.com/hop_availability_chart.php

 

[EdWort]

Wow, Northern Brewer is selling hops for $6 an ounce.

 

[brewt00l]

Wow, Northern Brewer is selling hops for $6 an ounce.

Did you see the explanation? I dunno.....:


January 10, 2008 - Hop prices are, regrettably, very high right now. Northern Brewer has a finite amount of hops available for 2008, and I am essentially pricing them based on supply and demand. Even at today's prices, people are buying so many hops from us that we will run out before the end of 2008. I intend to continually adjust our prices until our sales velocity is where we need it to be.

I would not encourage anyone to 'stock up' at these prices. In fact, if you can just wait a week or two, lower prices are just around the corner. I am trying to get a firm commitment from one of our vendors which will allow us to add about 50% more hops to our 2008 supply. They have been dragging their feet on this, but once I have something in writing, I will certainly be able to lower our prices significantly.

I don't believe that prices like this are good for the homebrewing industry. But I also believe that the only thing worse than high prices is not selling any hops at all, which is what a most homebrew stores are doing right now. Many homebrew retailers have hops, but they are hoarding them. They are keeping them for their own internal use, such as putting them in beer kits. Others impose strict limits on how many hops you can purchase. These practices are driving up our prices, because at present, we're one of the few shops crazy enough to put our supply of hops up for sale. (We still impose some limits on large hop orders, but we are much more liberal than most of our competition.) I expect other homebrew retailers to eventually overcome their fear of selling hops, and this too will bring prices back to a sensible level.

---
Chris Farley

http://northernbrewer.com/hop-pellets.html

 

[EdWort]

Did you see the explanation? I dunno.....:

Oh yes, but still, 6 bucks an ounce. I mean my investment in 5 pounds of cascade last year is doing a heck of a lot better in appreciation than my stock portfolio lately.

I foresee the ability to sell a pound on eBay for $100 this year.

Crazy!

 

[brewt00l]

Oh yes, but still, 6 bucks an ounce. I mean my investment in 5 pounds of cascade last year is doing a heck of a lot better in appreciation than my stock portfolio lately.

I foresee the ability to sell a pound on eBay for $100 this year.

Crazy!

It's getting crazy. I though it was nutty that I paid $3.89 an ounce for US Goldings the other week at my LHBS. They are now limiting hop purchases to folks that buy grain or DME/LME too.

 

[EdWort]

It's getting crazy. I though it was nutty that I paid $3.89 an ounce for US Goldings the other week at my LHBS. They are now limiting hop purchases to folks that buy grain or DME/LME too.

Yeah, I was at Austin Home Brew this week and they are limiting customers to 4 ounces so they have hops to sell with kits. Makes sense to me.

 

[balto charlie]

Oh yes, but still, 6 bucks an ounce. I mean my investment in 5 pounds of cascade last year is doing a heck of a lot better in appreciation than my stock portfolio lately.

I foresee the ability to sell a pound on eBay for $100 this year.

Crazy!

better than the stock market

 

[SW Brewer]

My local HBS had plenty of hops today (though they just received their shipment today for the week). The guy there said that lower prices are coming and the new crop is nearly in (not sure what that meant). Hops are cheaper there than online but they are limiting sales to 4 ounces per variety per customer. I bought enough to hold me for three brews, but thats all I could sensibly do.

Greg

 

[Seabee John]

looks like hops direct is empty... anyone else still selling bulk?

hop farm outlook 2008

January 15, 2008

After taking time to review numbers & count inventory, it looks like the 2007 crop sales are done.

We had hundreds of orders, as well as emails, over the holiday break and apologize for the delay to some of you, we are just not staffed this time of year for such high volumes.

Now we are looking ahead, working on equipment for our growing season this spring. The farm has a hop combine that's been in the development stages for the last 2 years and we anticipate full use this summer...watch for photos.

Additionally, we are implementing some changes in varieties we will be growing and hope for good weather!

We certainly hope in August you venture back here and see what is going on and which domestic leaf varieties are available. Keep in mind, normal hop havesting begins here in the states about the 20th of August.

Thank you for the orders but also for the great group of people we get to work with in the homebrewing world. Your hobby is appreciated.

Sincerely,
HOPS Direct, LLC

 

[McKBrew]

I guess we all knew this was coming, but I didn't expect it to go from something to nothing so fast. Luckily I've got a few batches worth of hops left and as long as my LHBS keeps selling them for 3.50/2oz and has some in stock, I guess I'm fortunate. I'll be damned if I'd pay 6 bucks for an ounce. Sorry, but I think that is just taking advantage of the situation.

Really makes a strong case for someone to start a small-scale hop farm that only caters to homebrewers.