Monday, February 07, 2011

Two links to hops tales.

That's right: Hops at Popular Mechanics:

10 Hop Varieties That Make American Beer Stand Out

Brewers engineered this craft revolution by embracing the best and most flavorful ingredients they could find. This means finding high-quality barley malt, the right yeast, fresh and appropriate water and, of course, the finest hops.

And then there's the bad news, as reported at beernews.org:

An interesting story about a returning hop crisis appeared on the Rogue Ales news wire on Friday: “The explosive popularity of hoppy beer has become bittersweet as the total American harvest was off 30% for the year, according to December’s USDA hop harvest report. Especially screwed now are those brewers relying on smaller-yield, aroma-centric American hops to make mainstream-barreling IPAs, since Simcoe, Citra and Amarillo are largely (if not totally) sold for the year.” It looks like a Beer Business Daily re-post so kudos goes to them for the reporting.

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