2012 Hop Harvest
2012 Hop Harvest. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.
This year’s hop harvest was down a bit from last year but Ann George, administrator for the Hop Growers of America is very optimistic.
GEORGE: I think that growers in general feel that their yields were probably down between 10 and 15% from what they would normally have. When you look at the national numbers, the state-wide numbers not just the variety by variety information, we’ll be down from last year’s crop anyway because we’ve had an on-going shift towards the lower yielding aroma type varieties away from the big high-yielding alpha types.
According to George there has been a steady shift in hop varieties.
GEORGE: We are about 48% aroma varieties now and about 52% alpha varieties which is an interesting switch because historically we’ve always been, at least here in the state of Washington and of course this is Oregon, Washington and Idaho I’m talking about, we’ve always kind of figured we were about 70% alpha, 30% aroma and Oregon and Idaho maybe 60/40. Well now the three of us together we’re rapidly approaching 50/50 and that’s a pretty dramatic quantum shift in what we do here in the U.S.
Alpha varieties are used in the beginning of beer making to impart that bitter taste whereas the aroma varieties are used later in the process to add the various flavors. She says this also represents a global shift as well.
GEORGE: The Germans have always been considered to be probably more aroma and less alpha, kind of the opposite of us. But this year they’ve kind of switched over the other way and they’re growing more alpha and less aroma and we’re kind of going where they used to be so that’s an interesting shift to me and while it does mean that over time our yields will drop because these are lower yielding varieties, hopefully if we can work closely with the craft and specialty brewing industry to meet some of their specific and individualized needs it can translate into more long term economic sustainability for the industry
The hop industry has seen its ups and downs in recent years and tomorrow we’ll discuss how the market may be leveling out.
That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
