Hop shortage?

[Rincon]

Popped into my local homebrew shop at the weekend to find they hardly had any hops.

I asked when they were due more in and I was told there would be no more this year due to all the big breweries buying up all the hops meaning there are none left for the home brewer.

I had a quick look on line but I couldn't find much information about any hop shortage and also online shops seem to still have stock.

Anyone know anything about a possible hop shortage?

Cheers

 

[Toredan]

Yes mate, couple bad years harvest wise. I reckon it'll be tough to get some of the more popular hops soon enough. That being said, perhaps look at the lesser used hops for inspiration!

 

[MyQul]

There was some talk of this on the forum not long ago (haven't done a search for it but have a mooch you might find the thread). I think the reasons went along the lines of the big breweries bought virtually the whole harvest of certain hops (citra like e.g. iirc the thread about hop shortage was about citra so chuck that into the search engine too), the popularity of craft ales now meant a lot of anything left was bought buy smaller/micro breweries leaving realatively little for the home brewer.

Geterbrewed have bought the whole harvest of nine slovienian hops. We had a giveaway for them a little while ago. There getting good reviews from the members who have used them so far. You might want to try some out

http://www.geterbrewed.com/hops/?subcats=Y&features_hash=V6 all the hops with styrian in the name as well as savinjski goldings

 

[GHW]

There was some talk of this on the forum not long ago (haven't done a search for it but have a mooch you might find the thread). I think the reasons went along the lines of the big breweries bought virtually the whole harvest of certain hops (citra like e.g. iirc the thread about hop shortage was about citra so chuck that into the search engine too), the popularity of craft ales now meant a lot of anything left was bought buy smaller/micro breweries leaving realatively little for the home brewer.

Geterbrewed have bought the whole harvest of nine slovienian hops. We had a giveaway for them a little while ago. There getting good reviews from the members who have used them so far. You might want to try some out

http://www.geterbrewed.com/hops/?subcats=Y&features_hash=V6 all the hops with styrian in the name as well as savinjski goldings

This does tend to happen a lot when hops get popular. Nelson sauvin in particular are always hard to get due to a relatively small harvest and huge popularity. Big breweries tend not to buy them as they wont feature in regular beers, but there's obviously zillions of smaller Brewers who still buy enough to outmuscle home brew suppliers.

Obviously you might want to support your lhbs, but you can find most things online somewhere. You can still get nelson sauvin pellets at geterbrewed, though they are 2014, so I'm guessing they're running out fast and not getting more in, though I'm not sure when they harvest hops in nz. You'd have thought they'd have 2015 by now though if they were getting any.

There's still hundreds to choose from though!

 

[Leon103]

Spoke to a brewery about this last summer and they said wholesalers tell middlemen and homebrew shops there is a shortage to drive price up of popular hops

 

[brumbrew]

It's all a sales hike and Probs a bit of big breweries buying them to just watch them rot knowing they've protected there swill.

Big plus 1 for Slovenian hops, they're damned tasty!

Styrian wolf I will be re ordering

 

[MyQul]

We have a member who is a hop industry insider can't remember what he said about the thing about hop shortage used to drive the price up and I can't remember his user name to do a search

 

[Notlaw]

There's all those newer varieties that the big breweries aren't using yet. Stuff like those Slovenian ones and those Hüll Melon ones, for example. There will always be varieties available, maybe just not the ones that are currently 'on trend'. Ask the more reason to experiment with other things.

 

[Covrich]

Ill say it again, those slovenian hops are really good alternatives and some different kinds too.. give them a try

 

[Cqr]

Maybe have a go at growing for fun/brewing
http://www.essentiallyhops.co.uk/cg...s&PN=English-Hop-Varieties-ENGLISH.html#SID=7

 

[Rincon]

Thanks for this everyone, looks like I might have to venture out of my comfort zone and start to experiment with some different hops - in the mean time I might have to start to panic buy and stock pile hops haha!!

 

[simon12]

Heres Charles Faram stock list they are the biggest hop merchants in the country http://www.charlesfaram.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Hop-availability-list.pdf you can see the contract only lines where breweries have booked it all, I would think most homebrew suppliers (at least the ones that repack hops themselves)have contracts for the ones they know they can sell). I imagine all but the biggest breweries buy through them. Its much easier to get homebrew quantities than it is small brewery quantities.

 

[HebridesRob]

I understand the Slovenian hops are good and might be worth a try.

 

[sponge_]

A bunch of Aussie hops got wiped out this year at HPA due to severe weather. There's a bit of an article here which is worth the read.

With the amount of new hop varieties coming out though, there are plenty of substitutes going around which makes it a lot less of a necessity to pay the prices some suppliers are asking for the 'limited stock' varieties.

 

[Rincon]

Maybe have a go at growing for fun/brewing
http://www.essentiallyhops.co.uk/cg...s&PN=English-Hop-Varieties-ENGLISH.html#SID=7

I have a mate who is now in his 2nd year of growing hops and its not going well!

Maybe I should try and give him a hand then I wont have to worry about buying any haha

 

[geetee]

Hop growing conditions are subject to weather variations, lots of sun and not too much rain . Californian droughts have stopped the rain altogether. Some of the US hops are very limited for 2015 harvest.
the industry does a Hop Market Forecast around Aug/Sep each year and last year's forecast was low. The main driver is shortage due to weather which drives prices up and unfortunately they tend not to fall back in years of good harvest.

In essences this means that any big brewers who contract ahead will scoop up most of the hops but then again if they cannot guarantee a supply they will also diversify to the lesser known or usual English/European noble hops.

I also found the Slovenian hops to be good if a little more subtle than US hops and if I did not have a freezer full of differing varieties at the moment would be buying more soon!

 

[Notlaw]

I also found the Slovenian hops to be good if a little more subtle than US hops and if I did not have a freezer full of differing varieties at the moment would be buying more soon!

I'm going to have to have to try some of the Slovenian hops. Plenty of flavour and aroma, but without the big-hit pungency of the American hops... sounds perfect to me.

 

[VW911]

I've been having trouble ordering hops for work for ages now.
My supplier told me that someone bought up virtually the entire US harvest, leaving global shortages...

 

[cheshirehomebrew]

might be the chance to experiment with unusual hops if those are the only ones you can get!

 

[drew83uk]

I know at my work there is lots of talk about hop shortages. We are now pushing trials trough which get more out of the hops. We have been challenged to brew with less hops and also utilize breeds which we have the most plentiful supplies of.

I don't think its going to come to hops not being available but short supply sure pushes up the cost. :-(