Hops production in NZ slumps by 10 percent

The New Zealand Hops co-operative says its 18 growers, which are in the Nelson region, produced about 750 tonnes of hops, which was 33 tonnes less than the year before.

Chief executive Doug Donelan said the weather had not been right since spring.

“The growing season wasn’t very good. We had a cold summer and prior to that during the early stages it was a very wet spring. The two things you really don’t want when you’re growing hops.”

Mr Donelan said some varieties were hit harder than others.

“We were down 30 percent on some varieties, but overall it was probably down about 10 percent on the previous year… that came off increasing acreage so we actually had more plants in the ground and produced less hops.”

The co-operative is working to increase the production of hops and wants to grow total volume by 30 percent to about 1100 tonnes.

Craft beer expert Michael Donaldson’s surprise as Epic Armageddon clinches coveted IPA trophy again

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Craft beer expert Michael Donaldson chaired the judging of this year’s New World Beer & Cider Awards. The author of two books on New Zealand beer was surprised when Epic Armageddon won the coveted IPA trophy for the second year in a row.

Were you surprised when Epic Armageddon won Best IPA for the second year in a row?

I couldn’t believe it because the IPA class is so competitive. It’s a blind tasting so we don’t know who has won until afterwards. It’s also won the Brewers Guild awards twice in a row. It’s won in Sweden and Australia. It just keeps coming out on top.

Epic owner Luke Nicholas gets his hops from America. Is that unusual for a New Zealand brewer?

Yes. The majority of our brewers use local hops. There’s enough for everybody despite high demand. Luke uses US hops because he started out brewing American-style beers. They just have the flavour profile he’s after. Parrot Dog Pandemonium won Best Pilsner with Australian hops even though New Zealand pilsners are the thing at the moment for their tropical passionfruit aromas. (full story)

New Zealand hop growers investing $20m in the expanding industry

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Kiwi hop growers are expected to invest $20m into an expanding industry in the next three years, as it responds to surging global demand for craft beer ingredients.

The growth of craft beer has transformed the niche industry, which has 19 New Zealand growers.

Last year, trade reportedly delivered around $20m a year in turnover and $14m a year in export returns.

The grower-owned cooperative harvested about 750 tonnes from 389 hectares in 2015.

About 85 per cent of the hops, which are largely grown in the Motueka and Riwaka areas west of Nelson, are exported. (full story)

So there is a hop shortage?

NZ Hops 2016 I can’t believe that this topic is being recycled yet again.

Hop shortage could result in price rise for beer

Another year another hop shortage story. I wrote about this two years ago.

How many times is this topic going to be written about. Seems like every year now a different newspaper will run this story using local breweries.

I listed stories about hop shortages going back to 2009. Yes it was me in the article in 2009 moaning about not enough hops.

You know what I did, I started taking out longer contracts. Guess what? Now my hop shortages come down to not forecasting well enough on specific varieties.

I know it is particularly hard for start up breweries to get contracts. You have to start somewhere, so start today. All breweries should be contracting the hops they need. In New Zealand, NZ Hops will contract NZ grown and imported hops.

If you contract for longer, and if everyone could pay a little more (which can be passed on in the price of the beer), then growers will grow more.

Growers want to know they can cover the cost of committing to the risk of planting out new fields. If they can get a 5 year+ commitment at a good price then they will look at growing more, as well as investing more in infrastructure (such as pickers and dryers).

NZ Hop Research 1st year hops My question is how do brewers offer to pay enough, over what period to get hop growers to grow more?

If they take out other crops then does the shortage of this crop, say like blueberries in Yakima, cause the price to increase in blueberries resulting in a change back from hops to blueberries.

There is much caution from the growers to invest because if you go back to right before the start of this hop shortage because of the booming craft beer industry, price were so low. For example I was landing US grown Cascade hops in the brewery in Auckland for $8/kg. that was 2006. 10 years ago 1/3 of the hop acreage in the US had been pulled out. 10 years in the life of a farmer was yesterday. There need to be assurances to invest to grow more hops.

The answer to this is brewers need to commit to hop contracts for as long as they can and at the best price they can pay to secure the supply they need.

P.S. To all reporters/journos who think they might want to write an article about “the hop storage” in the future please talk to brewers with hop contracts, hop growers or Doug from NZ Hops. Get the real story, not some chicken little the sky is falling waffle.

Maybe a little research?

The Hop Market
So how should brewers think about the coming hops market, finding a proper balance between understanding the challenges that growers and dealers will face while not giving in to extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds (aka unfounded beliefs)?

How to Estimate for your Forward Hop Contracts – by Teri Fahrendorf
In conclusion, you now have the tools to accurately predict your current and future hop needs

Craft brewing transforms NZ hop industry

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Fourth generation Nelson grower Brent McGlashen of Mac Hops says the industry is unrecognisable from 10 years ago.

“We had only a handful of customers, now it’s in the hundreds which has really helped because things weren’t looking too good. Hops were a commodity where the big brewers thought they could turn up and offer a price – that’s changed around,” McGlashen said.

Fourth generation Nelson grower Brent McGlashen of Mac Hops says the industry is unrecognisable from 10 years ago.

2015 New Zealand Hop Harvest

The 2015 New Zealand Hop Harvest was completed in the first week of April having started in the second week of February.

By Doug Donelan

The New Zealand Hop harvest commenced this season with the traditional northern types of Fuggle and Styrian Golding arriving into store in the second week of February. Early New Zealand varieties such as Pacifica and Motueka commenced soon after with all picking operations in full swing by the start of March and concluding with the final bales of the later varieties Rakau and Green bullet weighed across into cold storage by early April. During the growing season the spring was unseasonably cold, especially the overnight temperatures, which held the plants back considerably and slowed development until well into November. The region’s famous summer finally arrived with the New Year and it persisted solidly throughout, right up till and into April. It brought with it long sunny days with plenty of heat units all interspersed with good levels of warm coastal rain.

By the time harvest arrived most of the districts plants had developed into what appeared to be an above average crop but one that finished only slightly ahead of grower production estimates. The weather conditions during harvest were for the most part ideal, although some severe northerly winds and torrential rains did occur mid-point as part of the aftermath of category 5 tropical cyclone Pam which did impact harvesting in some gardens.

First year Riwaka hops grown at Mac Hops farm in Motueka

Main Harvest Points:

Farm structure for the 2015 harvest remained at 17 grower / shareholders (including a joint venture) all supplying hops through the cooperatively owned company of New Zealand Hops Limited.
Cultivation continues to be dominated by designated aroma/flavour varieties at 328 Hectares while Alpha designated production continued to fall to 60 Hectares. An overall total of 389 Hectares was harvested which is an increase of 19 hectares from the 2014 harvest (370 Ha)
Total volume harvested was 739,620 kilograms (Table # 1) which is a decrease of 24, 949 kilograms on the 2014 harvest (764,569 kg). Aroma / flavour designated hops accounted for 605,668 kilograms with alpha designated varieties at 133,952 kilograms.
The average alpha acid was 9.5 % with the highest commercial variety being Waimea at 15 .5 % and the lowest being Wai-iti at 3.1 %.
Selections and grade standard assessments scored well above the average with growers delivering hops of an exceptional standard…5,948 bales were received into the New Zealand Hops Limited new cold storage facility on Blackbyre Road Appleby.
A highlight once again of harvest was the industry’s green hop programme operated under an expanded model this year which saw NZ Cascade, Motueka and Nelson Sauvin distributed to 35 brewers throughout the main centres and supporting several green hop beer events and seasonal releases.

Market position:

The 2015 crop was approximately 95 % sold prior to harvest with a post harvest view that the total crop will be sold prior to the 2016 harvest.
Spot availability continues to be limited under the current market demand for New Zealand Hops and specialty hops in general internationally.
As has been stated in previous reports acreage will continue to expand against a landscape of sustainable pricing and forward contracts, however as the total international market continues to grow it is unlikely that the New Zealand Industry will advance past its current world crop contribution of less than 1.0 %
Currently a continued programme on farm of switching out of varieties is seeing modest increases in acreages while volumes remain reasonably static. A point will occur when the variety balance will be met and then both acreage and volume will commence to track upward together.

Industry outlook:

Research and development will continue to be a major focus of the industry through our research partnership with New Zealand Plant and Food Research. Plant breeding remains at the forefront of the programme and several new selections were identified as “of interest” during this season.
A pilot brewing plant was also commissioned during the season and several of the new selections have been earmarked for pilot brewing trials through our own system as well as some larger scale trials through commercial partners.
Identification of hops with unique flavour profiles and brewing characteristics for commercialisation run at the heart of the programme however agronomics such as yield and in particular establishing a broader future picking window are key to our future varietal selections.

New Zealand Varieties	Quantity	Northern Varieties	Quantity
	(Kg)		(Kg)
Nelson Sauvin	165,760	Cascade	31,500
Wakatu	126,730	Fuggle	1,820
Motueka	103,310	Styrian Golding	1,670
Green Bullet	41,380	Willamette	540
Pacific Gem	38,840	Other	3,520
Pacific Jade	34,250
Pacifica	33,000	Total Northern Varieties	39,050
Dr Rudi	30,550
Rakau	29,860
Southern Cross	22,400	Organic Varieties	Quantity
Waimea	20,700		(Kg)
Wai-iti	10,600
Riwaka	9,100	Wakatu	6,320
Kohatu	8,490	Cascade	4,520
Sticklebract	3,300	Nelson Sauvin	4,290
Brewing Trials	1,700	Pacific Gem	2,700
		Rakau	1,840
		Motueka	930
Total NZ Varieties	679,970
		Total Organic	20,600

		Harvest Total	739,620

Please direct further enquires to nzhops@nzhops.co.nz typing “Media Release” as the subject.

#FreshHopNZ15 – Auckland 2015

PRESS RELEASE – 23 April 2015

Freshhop is back for its second year, the brewers of Auckland learnt a considerable amount last year with our first Freshhop in 2014. Now they are using the lessons learnt and this year they are brewing using two varieties of Hops; Motueka and Sauvin.

In 2014 they used Waimea, this year Auckland Beer Lovers get the chance to try something new with not one but two new hops. These delicious beverages will be found on tap around the Craft Beer Bars in the Auckland Region.

The big difference between Freshhop beers and other beers is that the hops are picked fresh and brewed with as soon as possible. Hops are picked in the morning in Nelson then taken to a site for field heat to be taken out of them. They are then placed in a chilled truck and driven to Auckland as fast as legally permitted to keep them as fresh as possible. The truck is met by a group of eager brewers who take their hops immediately to their breweries to plunge them into their barley worts they have created and at the end they have a Freshhop beer.

If you can envisage the difference in cooking between using Fresh Coriander vs. Dried Coriander you are getting the gist of it. The Freshhop beer has more natural resins, more aroma and more flavour.

Many of the beers are designed to allow the hops to be the main aroma and flavour component of the beer. This is a unique once in a year opportunity to use the Hops as fresh as they can be and it is not a tasting opportunity to be missed by anyone who likes the greatest beverage of all…Beer!

There will be Eleven Auckland Brewers creating twelve different beers. These will be released on the 23rd of April in Nineteen bars across the Auckland region from Warkworth to Manakau and across to Riverhead. We shall be inviting the public to register with us and vote on which beer they liked the most and will go into a draw to win some great brewery gear from the brewers.

An Awards Function is scheduled at 16 Tun in Wynyard Quarter on Friday 1st May to announce the winners to the public, brewers and bars. Award categories covering best beer (people’s choice) and best activation/promotion by a craft beer bar on the theme of Freshhop Beers.

In the meantime get on to www.freshhop.co.nz

Facebook.com/freshhopnz15
Twitter: @freshhopnz15

VIDEO – Brew Day – House of Nicholas – Sarah IPA – #FreshHopNZ15

Video from the Brew Day at Hop Federation, with Simon Nicholas & Luke Nicholas. – HOUSE OF NICHOLAS #FreshHopNZ15

Fresh green hops rushed into action

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Hop grower Brent McGlashen of Mac Hops, left and Tuatara head brewer Rik Valentine load some of the 40 sacks, 800kg of freshly harvested green hops from Mac Hops in Motueka, ready to be flown to Paraparaumu and brewed immediately. Photo: Marion van Dijk

Time is of the essence when it comes to green hops, which is why Tuatara Brewery sent its head brewer to Nelson in a plane to collect 800 kilograms of the freshly picked cones.

Head brewer Rik Valentine made the journey from Paraparaumu to pick up the load of Nelson sauvin hops, harvested at 7.30am at Mac Hops in Motueka and loaded into the plane at 9.30am, especially for the brewery’s signature green-hopped Conehead beer. (full story)

#freshhopnz15 STARTS NOW!!!!

Yesterday 13 Auckland brewers, and many of Auckland’s craft beer bars met to discuss the details for #freshhopnz15 An event which will feature 13 beers made with Fresh Hops, straight from the hop fields of Nelson. Like this Facebook page and stay up to date with developments, updates from breweries, launch date as well as the list of the beers and the bars and outlets you can get them in.

Tag: hops