HOP QUERIES

* From a good family
* Hop profile: Nugget
* Links
      -Oregon I: Indie Hops
      -Oregon II: The sub-region
      -Orange hops
* Hunting for hops in Vegas

Welcome to Vol. 7, No. 12. This wraps up seven seasons for Hop Queries. So why not go to Las Vegas? I will be there soon (April 21-23) for the Craft Brewers Conference. The hop-related technical presentations are not as numerous nor always as in depth as at the World Brewing Congress (in Minnesota this year, in August), but I expect to learn plenty and will share the information in future Queries. There is no better place to check in with hop merchants from almost every significant hop growing region in the world.

I recognize that a relatively small number of subscribers will be in Las Vegas, so have made a list of a few essential stops the last section of the newsletter this month. The suggestions still may be of interest to those of you not attending, because the topics on the agenda reflect what is top of mind in hops at this moment.

THIS IS NOT A FAMILY TREE

This dendogram looks a little like the (out of date) family tree of yeast (scroll down to find the “tree”) unveiled in the mid-teens, but it does not connect mother and daughter (or grandparents and offspring) like a chart that illustrates how Citra became Citra. It represents the “genetic distances of 109 world hop collection cultivars based on 269 polymorphic molecular markers.”

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* Noble or landrace?
* Roy Farms & Abstrax
* Good news from England
* Hop profile: Callista
* Additional reading
     – New carbon footprint chart
     – BarthHaas 2023 Harvest Guide

Welcome to Vol. 7, No. 11. Thanks again to Best of Craft Beer Awards for sponsoring Hop Queries, and to readers who have made individual contributions.

YOU SAY “NOBLE” — I SAY “LANDRACE”

Last month, I promised to write about “Old World” and “New World” hops, figuring I would consider if the terms tell brewers anything meaningful. Turns out, some background is needed. That first, then next month a look at why molecular markers may be useful when examining where new and old worlds meet.

Not surprisingly, the story that started this off suggests the “most important of the [Old School] bunch are the four ‘noble hop’ varieties varieties used to make pilsners and lagers: Hallertau Mittelfrüh, Tettnanger, Spalt, and Saaz.”

You might be nodding in agreement, but I am shaking my head. In “The Oxford Companion to Beer,” Adrian Tierney-Jones writes, noble hops is “a term that has an undeniable ring of antiquity and distinction to it, yet is merely a marketing tag and a recent vintage at that.” And, “Today there is no longer any agreement as to which hops do and do not belong to the lofty ranks for Humulus lupulus nobility.”

Tierney-Jones spoke with German hop scientists Adrian Foster before writing the Oxford Companion entry. What Germans called “fine aroma hops” in the 1970s sometimes became known as “noble aroma hops” in other languages, and neither term was ever officially defined, Forster explained to me in an email. “Therefore, not all brewers and hop merchants have the same understanding of which hop varieties rank among fine aroma hops.”

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* Market outlook
* Oil check
* Weather updates
* Hop profile: Simcoe
* Additional reading

Welcome to Vol. 7, No. 10. First, if you are reading this, then the transition to EmailOctupus is a success. The newsletter itself may look a little different the next few issues as I learn my way around the software. Second, Best of Craft Beer Awards has signed up to sponsor Hop Queries, helping subsidize getting this in your emailbox. I appreciate that and would welcome another sponsor.

Third, if you wish to contribute as well, you may do that here. What does not go to EmailOctupus will be used to find information hiding behind paywalls. Finally, I have given Hop Queries their own website, to house the archives and occasionally provide new information. Among other additions, I have included a list of resources. Feel free to suggest additions.

WE’LL KNOW MORE IN JUNE . . . OR LATER

My story about why farmers in the Northwest are ready to remove 10,000 acres (about 18 percent of what was harvested last year) from production in 2024 has posted at Brewing Industry Guide (subscription required). Short term, this means there are plenty of hops out there, often at bargain prices.

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* Still too many hops
* Let it snow, let it snow
* Eclipse for an eclipse
* Zumo meets lager
* Cascade, Chinook cup winners

Welcome to Vol. 7, No. 9. Thanks to everybody who reached out last month with thoughts about the future of Hop Queries. There is a plan, and next month you should receive Hop Queries via a different service. What you need to know right now is that no action will be required on your part . . . I hope. To be sure, the day after I send the February issue, I will drop you a note via Tiny Letter to alert you Vol. 7, No. 10 has been published. If you did not receive it, we will figure out what happened. Now, back to Humulus lupulus.

THERE ARE STILL TOO MANY HOPS

A surplus of hops continues to hang like a dark cloud over producers and suppliers in the Northwest. Last week at the American Hop Convention, John I. Haas CEO Tom Davis told growers that as a group they need to remove an additional 9,000 to 10,000 acres of aroma hops from of production. Idling about 6,000 acres (including approximately 9,000 acres of aroma hops) in 2023 had no meaningful impact on inventory reduction. The estimated 35-to-40-million-pound aroma hop surplus has not changed.

For perspective, farmers in Washington, Idaho and Oregon harvested 60,113 acres in 2022 and 54,318 in 2023. In the Czech Republic, the third largest hop producing country in the world, growers harvest about 12,000 acres, almost all of them planted with aroma varieties.

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