Hops - shortage again?

[Wez]

I was talking to the guy at my local micro today and he recons that this years crop isn't going to go very far again especially as there are loads of people keen to buy them up following the recent problems getting hold of them, he also said that he's not yet had any of the new southern hemisphere crop in which he's normally had by August in previous years

 

[Vossy1]

I wouldn't worry about it just yet...early days.

 

[Aleman]

I was thinking of clearing out my freezer and ditching all my hops, and buying fresh from 2008 crop . . . . looks as though I'm not doing it now.

Problem with the NZ hops is that a lot of the pro brewers pre ordered them from Farams before they new what was in or being sent, so chances of any one else getting some are pretty remote. Plus prices are likely to be around 30 quid a kilo (Min order 5Kg) rather than the 6 quid of 2006/7

 

[delboy]

The price of barley might also stay high this year from what im lead to believe. Was chatting with a guy from the dept of agriculture, apparently a lot of farmers saw the huge increase in grain prices last year and jumped on the wagon and started growing grain which means the overall price of grain should fall :party:
Unfortunately though he was telling me that the **** weather was a PITA and slowed the harvesting although hardly any will actually be lost. However he did say that the seed barley germination tests were failing quite badly,that farmers were having to sell it as feed and that the although the price of feed barley was likely to be low the price of seed barley was going to be very high. Now i know none of us are growing our own barley and so your probably thinking so what, but seed barley and brewing barley are essentiall the same thing ie they both require high level barley with very high levels of germination to be certified, so if the seed barley is going to be high you can be sure the brewing barley is going to follow suit. Time will tell.

On a brighter side note though he's going to give me some quench seed grade quality barley (also certified for brewing) which im going to try malting at home for the craic

 

[Buzz]

Agree with Delboy re the barley prices. A local farmer to me has a contract with a bakery to supply 220 tonnes but couldn't honour the contract as the barley has failed the quality control tests - it's been so wet some of it is even germinating in the field. Also, the cost of drying the barley to get the moisture level down to an acceptable mark (about 14% I believe), is also pushing the price of the final product up. :cry:

 

[delboy]

Yipe buzz, the germinating in the field, the failed tests and extra costs involved in drying, all the same stuff this guy was telling me. I was hoping things in england where better than here in N. Ireland.

 

[MEB]

I don't understand why the southern hops haven't arrived? Apparently we produced more yield than last season with two more hop farms becoming established.

But kiwi's are a greedy bunch. It wouldn't surprise me if they hiked the prices up massively. They are not good business people the kiwi's.