Huge difference ference between Saaz crop year

[Alan_Reginato]

I bought these hop package recently

The 1st (left to right) is 2021, AA 4,3%. The 2nd, 2022, AA 2,6%. And 3rd, the same, but from a different brand.

And, WTF!?! I could tell them apart. Visual, 1st was dark green, 2nd light green and 3rd looks drier, brownish comparing to the others.

About flavour, 1st had a more herbal, intense hoppy. The 2 others had a more floral, citric accent. With the last package being less prominent.

It's the first time a bought hops from different years or brand at same time, so I could compare them, side by side.

It's normal such a big difference? How the hell brewers could achieve repeatability in this way?

 

[Agentgonzo]

I bought these hop package recently

View attachment 93246

The 1st (left to right) is 2021, AA 4,3%. The 2nd, 2022, AA 2,6%. And 3rd, the same, but from a different brand.

And, WTF!?! I could tell them apart. Visual, 1st was dark green, 2nd light green and 3rd looks drier, brownish comparing to the others.

About flavour, 1st had a more herbal, intense hoppy. The 2 others had a more floral, citric accent. With the last package being less prominent.

It's the first time a bought hops from different years or brand at same time, so I could compare them, side by side.

It's normal such a big difference? How the hell brewers could achieve repeatability in this way?

Big breweries take into account the changes in hops/malt from year to year and adapt their recipes accordingly to maintain a consistent product across the years.

 

[jof]

It's a natural product, so we should expect it to vary with that years growing conditions.
If we didn't then we would probably be better off using synthetic chemically identical compounds.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

2022 was a notoriously disastrous year thanks to the heatwave - in Germany the harvest was 30% down and the quality of some varieties was terrible too - but it does vary, the traditional varieties suffer more than the modern ones. See this thread where it was discussed in more detail :
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/hop-shortage.103413/#post-1242819
In short - 2021 versus 2022 is an extreme case, but get used to this happening more often in future as the climate changes.

Yes it makes things more difficult for brewers, which is why you're seeing a lot of beers being reformulated at the moment, Sam Adams Boston Lager is a prominent example. Either they're moving to more modern varieties from continental Europe that are more drought-resistant, or moving to non-European varieties.

 

[dmtaylor]

When I have tasted commercial beers with Saaz, they have this lovely unique floral character.

When I taste my own beers with Czech Saaz hops, they taste to me like lemon citrus & pepper. Totally wrong IMO.

When I taste fellow homebrewer's beers with Saaz hops, they often taste like nothing, or a super mild version of one type or the other.

This varietal of hop really seems to be too widely inconsistent for me. I won't be buying it anymore, too unpredictable.