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Hops acreage survey 2008

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  • Hops acreage survey 2008

    I saw this link on a different forum and thought it to be quite interesting

    Hop Growers of America is a trade organization with a primary focus on Grower Support, Statistics and Trade Promotion and Education.


    I'm assuming that the theory here is that lots of new acreage was planted, but may not produce quite the quality that is desired by farmers/brewers. Nonetheless, it is quite promising to know that planted acreage has gone up over 25% compared to 2007.

    Maybe if we just keep the arsonists at bay, 2008 crops will be better than the doomsday prognosis.

  • #2
    We still have to wait......2-3 years for any meaningfull production from the acerage planted this year.

    Comment


    • #3
      Nice link. I find it interesting how Cascade and Summit harvests will increase dramatically.

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      • #4
        Hey where is Colorado?

        Nah i know this is an excerpt from a USDA article.

        Before anyone gets happy though, these reports come from the self report data (you know when we all fill out health forms we weigh 120 lbs and eat veggies at every meal, never smoke, and exercise 20 minutes every day!). You could say you were planting 100 acres on the report and no one comes to count the rhizomes.

        Hopefully increased acres is increased production

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        • #5
          Lying is habitual

          If they lied this year, they lied last year and the year before.

          Seriously though, I am not getting hyped up about this, it's just that farmers responded to the increase on the spot market and planted new acreage, just as I predicted. I'm sure that the trend was worldwide and in 2-3 years, there will be another glut of high-alpha hops.

          Money makes the world go round.

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          • #6
            And where is New Mexico on that map?

            NM and CO are not on the map as only acres of hops of 50 acres and over are to be reported to the USDA- and it is voluntary reporting anyway?

            I did hear that the spring wet cold hurt some folks with new plantings- what survived?..... I know I had damage.

            Lying about anybody's hop harvest? Mother nature rules when guesses are just....... guesses and hope after some hard work.

            I have a map from "The Hop Growers of America" with the yellow blobs showing the USA hop growing areas and below it is a satellite image of New Mexico with my yellow dot. I think everybody needs a yellow dot. I hear yellow dots can grow into yellow blobs............ of great golden hops. So far my experience is pointing me to the fact that this is very possible with the NM hops..... great golden blobs of golden hops with little leaf.

            My hop update? The wet cold hurt hard. I was to take many certified organic soft-wood cuttings from 11 European varieties. It didn't happen as the Euros can't handle 90F days and 28F nights- they really got hurt. It even went to 29F on June 12 and zapped the beans and more Euro hops. At this time, the Euro hops are grasshopper fodder while the NM hops are rockin' out better than ever!!!

            I say, beat mother nature's changing rules by using her own adaptive daughters that are born from a non-stable climate. They know the rules and how to play the game in a changing climate. Massive diurnal temp fluxuations requires high altitude hops- if you really want flowers.

            I know I'm a small experiment farm, but this year I'll have an excess of hops if the hail doesn't ruin my hops.

            Who wants to come to NM and help pick native hops? If you never picked hops for days upon days, you might be missing a real "heady " experience.
            Picking hops for an extended period of time gets one pretty high and zoned out- try it. Harvest starts soon.

            (The digging of Osha' de la Sierra root is the only plant I know of that is more "heady" to harvest and I have never met anyone that can work hard digging this root for more than 5 hours.)

            At this time in history, picking and cleaning hops means sitting in a big cold basement, telling stories, picking and cleaning hops, drinking homebrew from native hops, take a break to raft down the river to Embudo Station, come back to pick and clean hops, drink homebrew, tell stories, etc...... with food in somewhere between.

            Scaling up is coming soon with more work and less fun. It's the $$$$$$.

            I wish all hop farmers would send in some photo updates of their hops. I guess that would be a new thread. Who else is out there with growing hops that would like to share some info?

            Comment


            • #7
              lyin' is pretty strong language there-- more like estimating.
              And weather can play a big big part

              wildcrafter-- I can get some pictures of some of the newbie hopyards we have-- but damn you set a pretty high bar already with your pic's
              Yep we have a June 3 frost-- ok for barley, very bad for hops. Frost pruned alot.
              Next came heat when the new girls had not had time for root and rhizomes development

              Yikes!

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              • #8
                other euphemisms

                Fibbing? Over-extending? State a falsehood? Be economical with the truth?

                Sorry, I didn't mean to come over to hard. I just don't see the motivation of farmers for misestimating their planted crops this year compared to other years.

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                • #9
                  No fence taken. There is no nefarious plot to lead brewers or brokers astray with rosy predictions

                  It is guessing based on the years before and that thing called hope. So what do you hope you will harvest after fire, floods, drought, disease, pests, winds, hail, heat and acts of god and what do you think you will want to harvest between raising fuel prices, death, disease, and divorce?

                  Wildcrafter-- Sorry to miss your hops party but we have our own party at harvest too!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    BC hops

                    An update from North of the Border:
                    Our hops here in the Shuswap (just north of the Okanagan Valley) are in burr. They look pretty good, although set back somewhat by the cold spring - but they were trying to come up through the last of the snow! Our own yard is only 1 acre, but there are more coming:
                    1 yard in the Fraser Valley planted 3 acres this year, up to 12 next spring.
                    2 yards on Vancouver Island at 1/2 to 2 acres
                    another 6 yards ranging from 1/2 to 3 acres around the province. The BC growers are primarily Certified Organic.

                    Plus about 6-8 yards planted in the East - Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia - with lots more interested. Most of these yards are small, in the same size range as here in BC.

                    All of these growers are aiming to sell directly to brewers. As far as I know, no-one is interested in pelletizing, due to the vast expense, so brewers will have to adapt. Fortunately, it's easy and cheap for a brewery to adapt to whole hops!

                    We will be running workshops sporadically throughout the year on small-scale and organic hops production. Let me know if you're interested.

                    Rebecca
                    Crannóg Ales
                    Canada's Certified Organic, on-farm microbrewery
                    www.crannogales.com

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                    • #11
                      Thanks for the Northern border update Rebecca. The info you have put out to the public is quite valuable and realistic. Thanks for the great kick in the pants- no waiting for Godot.

                      Hey, you growers, how about some picts of your portending hop crop?

                      I saw 7bb has 2008 hops coming for sale soon, how about pictures of your crop, 7bb? By the phone number, you're in Oregon.

                      I thought we would be the first USA hop harvest (as I start this week). Am I wrong? Our last breeding of NM hops has all the new girls 2 weeks early.

                      Does any body else in the world breed pure Humulus lupulus var. neomexicana?

                      Here's a few picts of hops in NM, 2008.

                      3357- a NM breeding
                      3358- Cascades in NM
                      3362- more NM hops

                      Too many picts of NM hops to post them all as all are quite unique. Hundreds.

                      Here come the golden hops,,,,, er,,,, I mean hopes.
                      Attached Files

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                      • #12
                        Great pictures!

                        I"ll try to post a few later...my pilot farm only has 30 plants in its first year, but I've got a few looking pretty good! Next year I'll move up to 300-400, depending on space available.

                        I planted in May, was too cold in the area before that, so I think I'm a little behind you all at this point...hoping I catch up soon!

                        Wild, have you brewed with your NM hops? What are they like??
                        Last edited by jason.koehler; 08-05-2008, 03:48 AM.
                        www.devilcraft.jp
                        www.japanbeertimes.com

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by jason.koehler
                          Great pictures!

                          I"ll try to post a few later...my pilot farm only has 30 plants in its first year, but I've got a few looking pretty good! Next year I'll move up to 300-400, depending on space available.

                          I planted in May, was too cold in the area before that, so I think I'm a little behind you all at this point...hoping I catch up soon!

                          Wild, have you brewed with your NM hops? What are they like??
                          Yes, I have brewed with the NM hops. Nobel, Citrus flavors, spicey, and more.
                          Some at 9.92 alpha.

                          Good thing I grow and brew with NM hops too as only Cascade seems to produce any cones of substance here in NM. The 3362 pict is a plant from rhizome planted May 7. We had 29F on June 12 after many days above 90F. Only the NM hops didn't care.

                          Jason- please do post some picts!

                          Let's see some hops!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Wildcrafter for President

                            Rock on, Wildcrafter. Regardless of the hops situation, I think it's awesome that you can brew with hops that grew on (or near) your premises. And I'm sure that your consumers like to see that, too. Keep up the good work.

                            Have you thought about leasing/buying land in the Taos outskirts to set up on a larger scale or is this only for your own needs?

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by einhorn
                              Rock on, Wildcrafter. Regardless of the hops situation, I think it's awesome that you can brew with hops that grew on (or near) your premises. And I'm sure that your consumers like to see that, too. Keep up the good work.

                              Have you thought about leasing/buying land in the Taos outskirts to set up on a larger scale or is this only for your own needs?
                              Thanks Einhorn!

                              A funny note on the brewing- I didn't plan to, I had to. Developing new hop varieties requires making more than a few groups of people happy. With all of the demands of a new variety of hops, a major factor is " does it make good beer?". No local brewer could brew small batches that match small quantities of hops. I had to get back into brewing and giving away alot of beer. You see, everybody's opinions matter greatly as to whether or not the hops suck or are great tasting. My problem is, I'm a newbie brewer. My benefit is, the hops taste great and somewhat cover my brewing inadequacies. I'm learning.

                              It is nice having a 1/2 acre hopyard, big greenhouses of tomatoes, and a 3/4 acre field of potatoes, broccoli, cucumbers, cilantro(for organic coriander), snow peas, sugar snap peas, and a host of green beans in the backyard. Lots to do with lots to eat and lots to brew with. And the Rio Grande is in the backyard with some great fishing and more. All of this keeps us quite busy. And I've filled the yard now.

                              I do plan on growing more hopyards. I'm still breeding and making choices based off of options. I've filled my space. I'll be removing losers to make space. When I need land, I'll try to get all of the land near me that I can walk to and the landlord has quite a bit of cert. org. land I can move on to. Folks around here are impressed with the hopyard and NM hops- they've never seen it before. I think I'll have no problem growing bigger. Next year, I'll be cloning quite a bit more plants and I'll figure out space by then. Next year should have about 600-800 more new plants. Here it comes! Exponential growth time- beautiful.

                              I'm just 22 miles south of Taos in a great apple growing area. Hopefully, La Bolsa( now called Embudo), NM will be the first purposeful hop growing area in NM as well as the birthplace of NANA hops.
                              Scaling up time! No waiting for Godot. Just do it.

                              This is meant to be.

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