Sharing the wealth

Weather and a global demand for hops has affected the ability for brewers to get the hops they need. A few posts ago I wrote about a conversation I had with Ralph Olsen of Hop Union in Yakima Washington about the shortage, and he was helpful in explaining how hops are bought and sold on the global market (see Fire, drought and demand=Short hop supply).

I also spoke with Todd Bellomy of the Sam Adams Brewery, in Jamaica Plain, Mass., about the shortage and how larger breweries are dealing with the situation. Todd told me that Sam Adams, part of the Boston Beer Company headed by Jim Koch, buys its hops mainly from Germany and England, and have locked their hops in at a certain price.

The brewery buys bulk quantities of hops and stores them, which has helped them continue to brew the major beers in their lineup with the same hop varieties despite the shortage, Todd said.

Still, the hop shortage has affected some of the smaller batches Sam Adams brews. One of the winners of last year’s Longshot American Homebrew contest won with a particularly hoppy beer made with seven kinds of hops, Todd said. The brewery had a difficult time finding all the hops needed to brew the recipe the way the winner intended.

“People wouldn’t even trade hops with Sam Adams,” Todd said, of the company’s efforts to secure the hops they would need to brew the beer. “We could not procure them at any price.”

Sam Adams instead only brewed two of the three winning beers, and plans to release the third beer when those seven hop varieties become available on the market again, Todd said.

In the meantime, Sam Adams has started a hop sharing program to help smaller breweries cope with skyrocketing prices. The company released 20,000 pounds of hops, and is selling them to small breweries at cost, he said. Brewers have to demonstrate basic requirements, such as the small size of their brewery and their hop need, and can apply online at the Sam Adams website.

Like Ralph at Hop Union, Todd is uncertain when the hop market will stabilize. “Hops are harvested in August and September,” Todd said. “So we won’t know until October or November.”