Hoping for Hops, Part One
Having gone to the Hop Rhizome Festival last weekend and a Double IPA Festival some months ago, I would never have guessed that the brewing industry is in the midst of coping through a hop shortage. At the Double IPA festival alone, we sampled 11 hop-tastic beers and at the Hop Rhizome Festival there were about a dozen more on tap. While I consider myself fortunate to have experienced a lot of good, hoppy beers lately, brewers in other parts of the country are not so fortunate.
An article forwarded to me some weeks back served both to illustrate to me the desperation of the situation and as the impetus for this post. In the most basic of terms, there is a hop shortage. Globally, drought and flooding have produced lower than anticipated yields. In addition, some hop producers have chosen to turn their lands over to grow more profitable crops such as corn to be used in the biofuel industry. All in all, the result is less hops to go around.
Hops are one of the four, primary ingredients in beer with malted barley, yeast and water being the others. Hops act as a bittering agent to balance out the sweetness of the barley. Hops also have wonderful aromatic properties, with some varietals being described as floral, piney, and citrus. In addition, hops have mild, antibacterial characteristics which serve as a natural preservative.
Jim Koch of the Boston Beer Company, known best for their Samuel Adams line of beer, has trademarked the phrase, “Hops are to beer what grapes are to wine”. While there is some truth to that, from a technical standpoint, it’s incorrect. Semantics aside, I understand what Jim is trying to say. The different grape varietals each have their own characteristics and qualities that give rise to the many different types of wines. Each grape holds within itself the soul of a wine, the intangibles that separate the mediocre from the magical. In this regard, yes, hops are to beer what grapes are to wine. Malt gives beer body and substance but hops impart soul, personality, and that certain je ne sais quoi that makes a beer memorable, remarkable and in some instances, life changing.
Major production breweries such as Anheuser-Busch (AB) and Molson Coors have huge contracts in place with existing producers to insure supply in a volatile market. If they are feeling the effects of the hop shortage, they’re not showing it in the form of increased prices of their products.
Mid-sized breweries like the Boston Brewing Company have opened up their personal stores to share with fellow brewers via lottery. I continue to be impressed with how the Boston Brewing Company has repeatedly supported the craft beer industry. Their Longshot Contest is a prime example of reaching out to and involving the homebrewing community.
Smaller production breweries, independent craft brewers and your local brew pubs have been hit the hardest. Without the benefit of a huge contract, they are left to scramble as best they can to source their raw materials.
“I have nine beers on tap right now, and maybe five beers aging. I think somewhere in the late spring the last pint would be served,” Sayler estimates. After that, his brewpub would become just another taproom serving beer produced beyond its own walls.
The hop shortage isn’t the only problem. An increase in prices for barley, glass production and transportation have all affected the bottom line. Brewers of all sizes can only do so much before the buck gets passed on to us, the consumer.
So what’s a craft beer lover to do? Really, the only thing we can do is continue to support the craft beer industry. This means continuing to purchase our favorite beers despite their rising costs. At the end of all things, a brewery is still business and if they’re not making money, they can’t continue to brew the beers we love.
Sphere: Related Content“We can only absorb so many inflationary price increases. We’ve seen it in gasoline, milk, all these different foods that are out there. And after a while people are just going to get concerned about what they can pay,” observes Wolaver. “But I think there’s enough loyalty where they’re not going to go back to the bland beers. Once you’ve had a taste of heaven, why would you want to go back, right?”