United States: Microbrewers obliged to pay much for hops despite abundant crop

Yakima Valley microbrewers are paying more for hops than what they're worth, Kimatv.com communicated on November, 1.

The hop shortage and high prices of last year are over but continue to hurt local brewers.

Chris Miller, the head brewer of Snipes Mountain Microbrewery, says he'll make up to 1,000 barrels of beer this year but instead of paying 6 thousand dollars for his hops he's paying nearly double that.

The shortage of last year scared a lot of brewers into contracts. So despite this year's excessive amount of hops driving down the price they're paying 2008 rates.

"I'm local and I'm still in a contract in between $16-$18 a pound and I have another year on a contract," says Chris Miller, Snipes Mountain Microbrewery.

Miller says he's paying around 10 dollars more per pound than what hops are going for right now. It's forced him to bump up his prices 10-15 cents per pint and change his recipes reducing his hop variety by more than half.

"Lots of breweries are selling their hop reserves to other breweries," says Chad Roberts, the Beer Shoppe.

The shortage hurt everybody and the folks that sell local microbrews saw it all first hand. Between the price of malt and hops some bottles prices were going through the roof.

"We had a beer go up like $3 per bottle in one week," says Roberts.

The hops might be overflowing now but for breweries stuck in contracts the problems of the 2008 shortage continue into 2009.

04 November, 2009