Hop Sourcing

[ezraburke]

Does anyone know where i'd be best to get Comet hops in the UK? Can't seem to find a source for them easily.

Also, pacific gem... that's another one i'm looking for.

 

[stevie123]

Good luck with them two:-(

Hops are in very short supply unless you want to purchase a 20kg bale, i have a mate that owns a micro brewery and he is having a hell of a time as well reasons are the weather and contracts with the big boys it seams even if you can source what you want the prices will put you off as of late

 

[Tony1951]

Maybe this is the way the big boys will respond to the growth in craft brewing. They can just buy up the hops and sit on them.

 

[stevie123]

Maybe this is the way the big boys will respond to the growth in craft brewing. They can just buy up the hops and sit on them.

I have two accounts with hop merchants as ive already told you Tony and the list is very short on what is up for grabs at the min, lets see what happens after this years harvest :-?

 

[geetee]

The final stats for 2015 USA forecast were not as bad as expected but they did have to use up some reserves and this summer (2016) is not expected to have teh drought and heatwave that affected last years crop. There may be more hops in September 2016 harvest but probably the price hike will remain.

 

[GHW]

Does anyone know where i'd be best to get Comet hops in the UK? Can't seem to find a source for them easily.

Also, pacific gem... that's another one i'm looking for.

Pacific gem here. Got some myself a short while ago but not used yet. Going into an unusual BIPA recipe later this year.
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/pacific-gem-vacuum-packed-leaf-hops-100-gms.html

Comet, just googled...eBay comes up with ze goods
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Comet-Ger...hash=item4afcf2f124:m:mp1BQ-NWjoyjqSECiNoQ_YQ

 

[ezraburke]

Pacific gem here. Got some myself a short while ago but not used yet. Going into an unusual BIPA recipe later this year.
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/pacific-gem-vacuum-packed-leaf-hops-100-gms.html

Comet, just googled...eBay comes up with ze goods
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Comet-Ger...hash=item4afcf2f124:m:mp1BQ-NWjoyjqSECiNoQ_YQ

Good lad! Cheers. We've got the Cloudwater DIPA clone o. The cards next month :)

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[Hoppy]

In these days of lean and six sigma in manufacturing, brewers are not sitting on large inventories of stock, the accountants wouldn't allow it! There was a huge shortage in 2007, for various reasons, therefore brewers held larger inventories for a successive period, not wanting to get 'caught short' again. This stock pile has diminished now.
Increasingly, it is harder in the current hop climate for big brewers to secure large volumes of the much sought after hops. You can imagine, a brewer going to a grower/merchant, have you 5000kg spare? I think not!

The biggest problem is: If a grower contracts 80% of is harvest (80% of what he's expecting) this leaves 20% for spot sales, if the harvest comes in light, say 20%, only brewers etc with contracts will be satified, others will have to wait until next year.

It is sheer demand from craft brewers, not the big brewers that are causing a shortage. An example, craft brewing in the US amounts to 12.9% of the beer consumed there, they use over 40-45% of the hops!
To give some perspective, 100g/hundred litres for a Pilsner/lager, 635g for a US IPA style beer.

To answer the OP, Pacific Gem and Comet aren't grown in any large volumes anyway.

Hoppy

 

[ezraburke]

No, that is true and getting them from a homebrew supplier seems difficult.

Still, will take what i can get from Fleabay!