Tag: hop supply

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Hoarders

Whether you believe that South African hops are important or not will color your response to the “re-allocation” of hops from the non-traditional hop growing region.

In their SAB addition, ABInBev picked up an R&D hop operation and due to low yields (which also happened to Nelson Sauvin in New Zealand), they have made the decision to keep the hops in house for their South African brewery brand, Castle with the rest going to their “high end”.

Could the hops be better used if spread out to craft breweries? The answer is an obvious yes. Are they hops owned by SABInBev to parcel out as they wish? Again, very much yes. One more, just one more question. Are the optics really bad? Ummm, yeah.

The PR people at SABInBev must be on a year long sabbatical. Why they did not postpone the Wicked Weed sale until after the Funkatorium fest is beyond me. The “high end” and their new “partners” in crime seem bewildered each and every time that someone responds negatively.

Then to follow that up by not proactively spreading the news about the hop supply seems slow on the uptake as well. For a company that is mostly distribution focused with marketing not far behind, you would think they would master the press and social media.

We in the U.S. will lose a few special beers but we are not short of IPA’s, so maybe this is a long term good thing for style diversity. Not to mention, every time SABInBev goes full on Darth Sidious it riles the base of craft beer to action. Sometimes that is good energy to have.

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Hop Forecast

Hoppy, with a chance of bitterness. All kidding aside since you should not trust any LA based weather prediction, here is the news from the hop bines….
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The latest report from the Hop Growers of America points to a sunnier future for this IPA crazed drinking nation.

Hop inventories in the U.S. have increased by 10 percent in the last 12 months compared to last year. That doesn’t mean your local brewer will be able to brew up an exotic SMaSH beer because only a portion of that 10% will go to what is called the Spot Market (the not already pre-ordered part of the market). The rest will fulfill contracts that are purchased years in advance.

This year will mark the fourth year in a row that the acres of hop fields have grown here in the U.S.. In addition, it is the third year internationally with Germany expected to increase its acreage of hops by 10%.

Part of me sorta hoped that the supply would stay tighter as it would force brewers into different styles or be more creative with their personal hop supply. That is the same part of me that wishes that George Lucas always had to work on a shoestring budget for his Star Wars and not rely on the old green screen so much.

This will certainly help logistically for many breweries who had to really plan out their brewing schedules and will hopefully trickle down to the new brewers who don’t have the access to hops that the established brewers do.