Newsletters

* John I. Haas & Hop Head Farms
* Advanced forms and functions
* Fresh hops: The science
* Fresh hops: The controversy (?)
* Hop profile: Over/underrated

Welcome to Vol. 9, No. 5. In the introduction to “For the Love of Hops,” sixth-generation hop farmer Alex Feiner told me, “They say whoever is scratched by the hops cannot escape them.” That was apparent, once again, earlier this month when Daria and I visited farms in Oregon and Washington. Harvest signals an end, but also that a new brewing season is ahead. It might not make sense – after three years of acreage reduction and looking at a beer market that is not flashing green – but it seemed as if you could smell optimism as well as fresh hops in the kilns.

Of course, industry change is also always in the air. Today, John I. Haas and Hop Head Farms in Michigan announced that beginning Nov. 1 Haas will take over fulfillment of Hop Head’s existing contracts and customer relationships for non-Michigan grown hops. Hop Head will continue to farm and sell direct to market Michigan grown hops. Haas also announced a partnership with warehouse and logistics provider Lineage to operate a dedicated East Coast distribution hub in Pennsylvania.

What hasn’t changed is witnessing how exciting harvest is for brewers, particularly those experiencing it for the first time. We were gone by the time Michael James Jackson Foundation awardees arrived in the Yakima Valley, but Breeze Galindo captured a bit of it. And a story in the Yakima Herald-Republic adds perspective. (This version, with photos, appeared in the Seattle Times, and fortunately does not reside behind a paywall.)

BACK TO BASICS

Established in 2012, Hop Head Farms began selling hops grown elsewhere as well as its own almost from the beginning. It contracted with four German hop growers in 2013 to deliver bales of newly released varieties, such as Huell Melon and Mandarina Bavaria. As its own acreage expanded, so did relationships with growers elsewhere. Their spot hops catalog, including varieties supplied by Haas, illustrates how wide the range of what they offered became. That is changing.

“The future is growing our Michigan varieties, producing great hops,” Hop Head CEO Perry Veith said last week while visiting company farms. Yields this season were outstanding across the board, and he sounded optimistic. “I think the cycle is close to turning,” he said. Hop Head harvested “a couple of hundred acres” in 2025, and has room to expand.

“We’ve been partnering with Hop Head for close to a decade now, and I think this is just that natural next step,” said Haas CEO Tom Davis. “The market’s dictating a lot of it. Everyone’s feeling the pinch, whether it’s the brewer side, and certainly the grower side, and the distributors in between. The natural next step . . . is to do what you do best, and I think Hop Head does an excellent job. They’re the best in Michigan hops.”

The changes give Haas a larger footprint east of the Mississippi. “We’re going to be working more closely with these new customers, these new brewers,” Davis said. “Utilizing our East Coast distribution center will help because we’ll be able to get those hops out to those customers, as well as other brewers, much faster. Further penetration into the smaller craft brewers is an excellent part of the story from the Haas side.”

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* Here comes Dolcita
* German hop production shrinks
* Beyond Saaz
* Drought conditions in England
* Counting hops
* Oregon Hop Festival
* Hop Source Sept. 23-25
* New Lupulin Exchange tool
* Reference material
* Listen here

Welcome to Vol. 9, No. 4. As the list right above indicates, there’s plenty of information to pass along this month, which means keeping everything brief. I’ll start with something I learned in Argentina earlier this month. How do you say hop burn in Spanish? Hop burn. Same in Portuguese as well.

DOLCITA

From the press release: “Hop Breeding Company (HBC) is proud to announce the official commercial release of Dolcita brand HBC 1019, a new and innovative hop variety designed to meet the high expectations of brewers and beer lovers around the world. Created in 2016 using traditional breeding methods and HBC’s proprietary breeding stock, Dolcita is one of the fastest hops ever brought to market by HBC.”

I posted more at the newsletter website, and also wrote about Dolcita and other newcomers for Brewing Industry Guide. You can find even more at the John I. Haas and Yakima Chief Hops websites.

FROM GERMANY

As you can see, there is a new Hallertau hop queen (the Tettnang region has a queen of its own). She was crowned last week at a fest party that signals the beginning of harvest. Unlike in the United States, where we must wait until December to learn how many million pounds farmers harvested, the German Hop Growers Association publishes an official estimate for the crop (scroll down for English). Farmers are expected to produce 41,235 metric tons (about 90.7 million pounds and likely more than the U.S. crop), 11 percent fewer than 2024. Growers cut acreage by 6.5 percent and yields were adversely affected by a lack of rain until mid-July and further reduced by disease and pest pressure.

Read more

* New Zealand flooding
* What tools to use & when
* Hop Profile: Talus
* Good listening

Welcome to Vol. 9, No. 3. The BarthHaas Report 2024/25 will be published next Tuesday (July 22). The release always provides useful information about the previous global harvest and hints about what to expect in the coming months. I’ll be a few days into the beginning of a stretch of travel during which I’ll be home eight out of 31 days. That’s why you are getting this now and a summary of the report will have to wait until the August dispatch.

DISASTER DOWN UNDER

What’s going on in the Tasman region of New Zealand is what they call a breaking news story. At the end of last month, rain hammered the area. Here’s part of the message that Brent McGlashen posted on Mac Hops Instagram feed:

“Statistically and visually, we hit above the 1 in 100-year flood level, with also highest ever recorded river flows in a number of parts in the Motueka river. There were stopbank breaches in places, but luckily the Motueka township was a couple of feet away from near disaster with the high tide also causing issues.

“Both our farms have water everywhere, fences with damage and some debris scattered around, but we are fortunate compared to others who have had significant damage and loss due to the flooding. Was this predicted, well yes it was. Forecasters said over 200mm and we sure got that. We have had a wet winter and the ground can’t absorb more so it has to go somewhere.”

One hop farmer died as a result of the storm. Peter Lines was clearing flood damage from his property in Wai-iti, southwest of Nelson, when he was hit by a tree. This tribute on Instagram provides an idea of how important he was to the hop growing community.

Another round of rain arrived last week, leaving fields under water and dumping mud, gravel and sand on facilities that had just been cleaned up (or were still being cleaned up). Hayden Oldham from New Hoplands said “it’s back to the start. Everything we cleaned up has been spread back out and gone through sheds and gardens.” He said downed trees swept into fast moving water had taken down hop poles.

Read more

* GABF category promotes newest public hop
* America’s hop fields continue to shrink
* Global outlook
* Hop Profile: Brewer’s Gold

Welcome to Vol. 9, No. 2. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Acres of hops strung for harvest in the Northwest states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington were down from last year. Not a shocker. Acreage has shrunk from a peak of 60,872 in 2021 to 42,231 in 2025. The surprise was that Citra acreage increased in all three states. Details after a bit of funs news about special treatment hop newcomer Vera will receive at the Great American Beer Festival.

GOING FOR GOLD WITH VERA

The result is not totally guaranteed, because beer judges have been known to do strange things like not awards medals. However, you can feel pretty confident betting that a beer brewed with the just named hop Vera will win a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival. The Brewers Association has announced that it has created a special category for 2025 only, featuring beers brewed with Vera (formerly known as W1108-333 or HRC-003). They need not be single hop beers, but they must highlight the distinctive character of Vera, “which has been described as having tropical, stone fruit, and citrus character, reminiscent of a pineapple flavored Life-Savers candy.”

Vera is a product of the USDA-ARS breeding program, a cross between Brewer’s Gold and a powdery resistant male hop 64103M made in 2011 by Steve Kenny at Prosser Station, a Washington Station University facility. Although that program was shelved in 2015, promising experimental varieties were maintained. When a joint effort by industry participants (the Brewers Association, Hop Research Council, Hop Growers of America and others) revived the public program in 2018, W1109-333 was one of the cultivars that Hopsource identified as a brewer favorite.

Hopsource is a platform developed by DraughtLab to “identify public varieties, early in the breeding process, that show commercial promise for their sensory characteristics.” Brewers began using it in 2018 to provide feedback.

Vera was named for Vera Katherine Charles (1877–1954), an American mycologist. She was one of the first women to be appointed to professional positions within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Charles coauthored several articles on mushrooms while working for the USDA. Although Charles was not involved in research related to hops, when brewers flavor a beer with Vera they may be reminded the hop comes from public supported research.

Read more

* Australian harvest report
* NZ Hops harvest report
* Camp on a hop farm
* Crosby Hops x Roy Farms
* Bell’s, Centennial, and terroir
* ‘From Field to Fermenter’

Welcome to Vol. 9, No. 1. Not a lot of querying going on this month, but plenty to tell you about. And if you want more, I suggest subscribing to Brewing Industry Guide, where I wrote about a new round of aroma and flavor products that were on display at the Craft Brewers Conference.

FEWER ACRES, BUT MORE HOPS IN AUSTRALIA

Responding to worldwide diminished demand for hops, Hop Products Australia idled fields in 2025. However, near perfect hop-growing weather for the first time in several years contributed to a bumper crop. Although acreage across six proprietary varieties and Cascade decreased 15.5 percent, farmers harvested 9.5 percent more hops in 2025 than 2024, a total of 1,468 metric tons (3.2 million pounds).

The 2025 crop is the first processed at HPA’s Hop Central facility with cold chain bale storage, temperature-controlled production rooms, and modern pelleting and packaging equipment. “Hop Central has significantly reduced our processing time while maximizing oils in the finished pellets and minimizing oxygen in the foils. It’s all in the name of consistent impact in beer,” said facility manager Michael Monshing.

Galaxy continues to account for 65 percent of production, about 2.1 million pounds, almost four times Vic Secret. Because of contracted demand, growers harvested 88 percent more Ella, the third most produced variety. The Ella crop is characterized as outstanding, with oil and alpha both above the five-year average. “Brewers should expect a real depth of flavor and complexity when pairing Ella with other new world hops,” said CEO Owen Johnston.

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