MOXEE — Hop harvesting began across the Yakima Valley this week, and growers are expecting a record 91.8 million pounds in the Northwest this year.
That’s a 16 percent increase over last year. But the growth is being greeted with cautious optimism by the hop industry due to concerns supply may soon outpace demand, said Ann George, Hop Growers of America executive director.
Production has grown 50 percent since 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, driven by the explosion of craft breweries and America’s growing taste for very hoppy beers.
“The breweries have been growing at a faster rate than we’ve been able to ramp up hop production but we’re going to catch up, ” George said. “What a lot of people are seeing, when you add 13 million more hops, chances are we’re starting to catch up. The question is when do you overshoot the mark?”
One sign demand may be slowing is that hop merchants have more product sitting in warehouses, she said. Unlike a few years ago when some varieties were in short supply, brewers aren’t rushing to pick up their orders.
In the Yakima Valley, where about 75 percent of the nation’s hops are grown, the acreage has grown more than 10,000 acres — to 37,000 — since 2012 as well.
Most of the new acreage is planted in varieties in high demand recently, George said, adding that this year’s crop looks really good.
Kevin Riel, a Harrah grower with 1,100 acres of hops, said his hops are not suffering from the heat and water stress that reduced the yields of some high-demand aroma hop varieties during last summer’s heat wave.
“Particularly for the earlier varieties, the “normal” summer weather we had has been very beneficial to them,” Riel said.
“I characterize our operation as slow and steady, in good times and bad we’ve done small, incremental growth,” he said.
Other growers who added significant acreage in recent years may be slowing in the next year or two, George predicted.
