Newsletters

* 2024 crop
* Classifying thiol impact
* Krush with a K
* Wanna bet?
* Hop profile: Ekuanot
* More reading

Welcome to Vol. 8, No. 4. Hop harvest has begun, and in some regions finished, in the northern hemisphere. Plenty of photos of bright green cones in my Instagram feed, as well as a couple of videos of trellises that went down in stormy weather. Here is an example from @westcoasthopbreeding. Next month, I plan to post a list of fresh hop festivals. Feel free to send me information.

ACRES + YIELD = HOPS

This is the way it is supposed to work. Plant more acres, get more hops. String fewer, get fewer. Increase yield, get more hops. Pre-harvest estimates suggest that has happened in both the US Northwest and Germany.

Each of Germany’s five hop growing regions (Hallertau is by far the largest) provided estimates as harvest began. Production in the Hallertau increased 21 percent over 2023, to 42,350 metric tons, while overall German production grew 18.8 percent to 48,964 metric tons (98.1 million pounds). Why? Yields in Germany were up 20.5 percent. Although yields in 2023 had improved on 2022’s particularly disappointing harvest, they were still below average.

Important numbers for those interested in traditional landrace varieties: Hallertau Mittelfrüh 565 metric tons (+4.6 percent), Hersbrucker 1,714 metric tons (+38.2 percent), and Spalter Select 906 metric tons (+26.7 percent). Yes, Select is the bred version of Spalt Spalter, but there is no published estimate for Spalt Spalter, which is planted on far fewer acres.

The overall harvest yielded about nine percent more hops than an average crop the last 10 years, which a press releases notes will be sold into a market that is “. . . oversupplied.”

That oversupply is why farmers in the Northwest removed almost 10 percent of acreage from production between 2022 and 2023 and another 18 percent between 2023 and 2024. Higher yields in 2023 compared to 2022 offset the cuts in acreage and overall production increased two percent, from about 102 million barrels to 104 million barrels.

Read more

* This is your brain on Saaz
* Random observation: The best Citra?
* Hop profile: Styrian Wolf
* Links
      – Two faces of Citra
      – Down on the small hop farm
      – BarthHaas annual report
      – Hop sensory
      – Hops and NA beers

Welcome to Vol. 8, No. 3. Hop harvest has begun east of the Mississippi, and will be underway in the world’s primary growing regions in a matter of weeks. Reports indicate that most farms “are in a pretty good position to get to the finish line.” Of course, those of us west of the Mississippi who are waking up these days to hazy skies that result from wildfires remember the impact of smoke taint on the 2020 and 2021 crops. Be alert.

RELAX, HAVE A PILSNER

After a conversation with a hop merchant about fractionating essential oil, I revisited research—mentioned briefly in “For the Love of Hops”—related the relaxing effect of certain compounds.

Scientists at Sapporo in Japan used headband sensors to measure the brainwaves of participants, first when they were smelling beer, then later in an experiment that included drinking the beer. They found:

– When subjects smelled the odor of essential oil extract from Saazer hops, the rhythm of the frequency fluctuation in the right frontal alpha-waves significantly increased in regularity, showing that the subjects felt a lower level of arousal and became more relaxed.

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* Strung, and not strung, for harvest
* Random observation: Hersbrucker Pure?
* The aromas of IPA
* Hop profile: Harlequin

Welcome to Vol. 8, No. 2. One quick programming note. Last month, I promised a report from harvest in New Zealand. That will have to wait until July.

EMPTY TRELLISES

Farmers in the Northwest have strung 6,720 acres of trellises with Citra hops, to be harvested in September. That is about five times more acres than growers in England will harvest of all varieties this year.

However, US farmers didn’t string 2,136 acres with Citra that they did in 2023, or 5,324 that they did in 2022.

This is not an example of demand for Citra shifting to, say, UK-grown Harlequin (see below). This is an example of how out of whack aroma hop supply and demand are right now. A USDA report released Thursday indicates farmers will harvest 9,775 fewer acres in 2024 than they did in 2023, and 15,242 fewer than they did in in 2022.

(Some of those acres may simply remain empty, while crops may be grown on others. The photo above is not new. It was taken in Oregon in 2013, before aroma hops filled fields that were idled after a short-lived surge in alpha demand.)

I have already written a bit here, plus more at Brewing Industry Guide on why this is necessary. That has not changed in recent months.

The question now for hop producers and consumers is: What happens next?

I do not know. I will repeat that. I do not know. I will not pretend. Instead, a few numbers, offered in small bites. Some are more significant for brewers, some for farmers, some for beer drinkers.

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* Resetting picking windows
* Region closeup: Australia
* Random observation
* Hop profile: Sterling
* Links
      -Underrated, overrated hops
      -German acreage
      -Crosby recipe book

Welcome to Vol. 8, No. 1. Could there have been a better place to watch the Northern and Southern Lights that filled the skies last week than a hop yard? Not everybody would say yes, but I think it would have been grand to have been magically transported to this field at Mac Hops in New Zealand. Check out the Instagram post from Brent McGlashen. At CBC, he told a great story about snow and Nelson Sauvin that I need to flesh out and relay next month. This month’s regional closeup focuses on Australia. Next month, New Zealand.

HOP HEALTH AND AROMA

During a presentation at the Craft Brewers Conference, CLS Farms added another chapter to what could make a good book, focusing on hop picking windows and decision making that may impact aroma and flavor.

The newest wrinkle is the role hop stunt viroid may play in deciding when to pick Cascade. Research suggests that if recently planted virus-free Cascade fields are harvested on “traditional” harvest dates they will be picked “before their time.”

CLS marketing and sales manager Claire Demarais nicely summarized the presentation, “Exploring Hop Picking Windows and Their Impact on Aroma and Flavor,” at the company blog. She sat on the panel along with Alexandra Nowell (also CLS), John I. Haas sensory manager Jeff Dailey, and Tom Nielsen of Abstrax Hops.

You may download the 2024 presentation here, along with one from 2023 (presentations at CBC and the Master Brewers Association of the Americas convention were the same). The 2024 presentation builds on 2023, with more data and the discussion about picking adjustments farms may need to make when replacing Cascade infected by hop stunt viroid (HSVd) with virus-free Cascade.

There is much to consider. For instance:

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* 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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