My lhbs said their supplier would be out of Amarillo and Simcoe this year.
The supplier they are using might not be able to get them but I am guessing that they will be available. They both are very popular hops.
Before everyone starts crying "hop shortage!!!!!!!!"....check out the brewing networks podcast on "Hop school"...is a recent Sunday Session...
The Hop industry is going through some market and supply corrections over the past few years and the shortage of Simcoe et. al is a product of that. The good news is there are some exciting new stuff coming down the pike to relieve the demand for hops like Simcoe...new blends like Falconer's Flight are going to be made available next year....and there should be a "IPA ready" blend using Simcoe and other hard-to-get hops....its called "z"-something...
Def. worth a listen if you are interested in that sort of thing.
Part of it is that they are patented, part is that there is only a limited amount of acreage so they would have to kill off one strain in an area to plant a new one(if I remember right it takes a few years to make sure the old hops are dead, don't want warrior shooting up in the middle of your citra field) and from an older brewing network show they pretty much sell their hops to suppliers in the fall the year before the harvest which means if the market suddenly changes like with Simcoe and citra, there is an 18 month delay until you will notice that the growers have reacted. It sucks, but at least we are homebrewers and have the opportunity to tweak our recipes or try new ones if there is a shortage, it sucks for breweries who can't make signature beers due to hops not being available. They can't substitute and just tell the customer that's all they had to work with.
Freshops has Citra and Simcoe available. I already brewed an IPA with Citra in it from this year's crop! I bet they will go fast. Also label peelers has Simcoe pellets quite cheap.
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