The economy is hitting everyone hard - including small brewers who are worried about rising prices on hops. The solution? Grow your own.

As the costs of hops rise - and the supplies drop - small brewers are the ones that suffer. They don’t have the leveraging power of the larger brewers and are often forced to take “leftovers” - which doesn’t necessarily result in quality brew.

Some brewers are looking into producing their own hops instead of relying on hope suppliers. And why not? As we previously reported, hops are not terribly difficult to grow - and growing them is becoming more popular.

Stay tuned to see how it changes the industry!

I’ve complained about this before, but I have to say, I’m getting really tired of hops.

Ok, so I’m not actually getting tired of hops per se, but I am quite tired of the idea that every beer, of every style, must be hopped to the hilt in order to be of any worth. In fact, I have to admit that I was almost thankful for the hop shortage, hoping it would lead to a somewhat more discriminate use by brewers. As far as I can tell, it hasn’t. In fact, the other day I picked up a variety pack of Flying Fish, a fine local brewery, only to find that they too have jumped on the Hop head bandwagon, replacing one of the four beers with HopFish. As you can guess, it’s a hoppy IPA.

Nothing against HopFish, which is a good beer, but it seems to me that hoppy IPAs are going the way of heavily-oaked Chardonnays. Too much of a good thing can be, well, simply too much.

All summer long, I’ve beaten myself up about not planting hops. I had previously posted a quick primer on hops vines that got me to thinking about planting some in the garden. And I didn’t. I had already planted three clematis vines, only one of which has taken off, leaving my garden with an ugly bare spot. Serves me right, I guess.

Next year? There will be hops.

Hops are pretty vigorous growers and not particularly picky. Today, on twitter, the enjoyable Jeff Louella posted that he had photos of his hops garden on his blog. I thought the photos were great and Jeff graciously agreed to let me link to him from the site. So wander over and take a peek.

While I was planning on planting hops for purely aesthetic reasons, Jeff’s vines are for use in homebrewing. Be sure and stop by his blog from time to time to see how it’s going.

Wow, I knew there were a lot of different kinds of hops, but this list really puts it into perspective. Keeping in mind that hops are the spice of beer, knowing the difference between a Saaz and a Cascade is like knowing the difference between sage and oregano. It’s particularly interesting to note how many of these are US varietals.

image from Wikipedia, public domain

I hate it when I read the description of a beer and I don’t know what it means. I figure this is usually the result of one of two things:
1, the person who wrote the description likes confusing me by using words to describe the beer that no one else would actually use because it makes them feel important; or
2, I still have a lot to learn about beer.

Part of the fun in appreciating wine or beer is understanding why drinks look or taste a certain way. Once you’ve figured this out, you can make good choices about what you want to drink instead of falling into the “I don’t like dark beers” category… That’s like saying you don’t like red wine; it’s more likely that you just don’t like certain kinds of red wine.

So where to start?

With beer, most of the taste comes down to hops. What we commonly know as beer hops are really the female flower cones of the hop plant (the scientific name is Humulus lupulus). The kind of hops used in brewing beer considerably influences the bitterness and aroma of the beer. Since hops is really a flower, when you hear someone describe a beer as “hoppy”, they’re usually picking up on the strong floral notes in the beer. And yes, you can really tell - this isn’t one of those misleading “you can taste a hint of peppermint together with a rare South African flower” type statements.

Different beers use different types of hops to control the flavor and in some beers, the brewers use a mixture of hops. Like with grapes in wine, the type of hops alone or in combination with other hops will result in differing tastes.

Also as with grapes in wine, where in the world you grow the hops will influence the taste. Not surprising, the top hops growing country in the world is Germany - followed by USA, China and the Czech Republic. German hops are also regarded as among the very best.

Unlike growing grapes, growing hops is surprisingly easy - and many gardeners actually use hops vines in their gardens. Hops vines are fast climbers and attractive to boot. Hops are also perennials, making them quite low maintenance; they come back in early spring after appearing to die off come fall.

Hops grow quickly - sometimes as fast as 1-3 inches per day. The individual vines can reach up to 50 feet - pretty impressive! The vines make great cover for pergolas, arbors, fences and other lawn structures - just like honeysuckle, clematis and grape vines. Due to the size and weight of the vines, a support system is definitely a must.

In the US, most hops vines are hardy in zones 4 through 8 (in Philly, we are a zone 6b - you can check your hardiness zone here). Hops are fairly drought tolerant (assuming that you’re growing them for looks, not taste) though they prefer a regular watering and soil with good drainage. The vines should be planted in full sun - with decent spacing to allow for rapid growth. When the vines stop growing, they produce a lovely light blue flower - the blooms usually show in early summer.

I’ve toyed with putting them in my garden for awhile yet - they are inexpensive and you get a lot of “bang” for your gardening buck. Colleagues have recommended mixing the plant with clematis for a pop of color. One year, I am going to get around to it.

I’m not patient enough to dry them for brewing - but that’s not the only use for the vines. Many gardeners use the vines to make wreaths and baskets. Gardeners, you know, are clever that way.

(Image: Newscom)

I’ve talked about the shortage of hops and barley a few times now, but it’s probably more interesting to hear about it from someone who knows about it firsthand. This article in Flavorpittsburgh.com tells the tale of a grim future for highly hopped beers if the trend continues. According to the brewer at Pittsburgh’s tiny East End Brewing Co., hop prices have quadrupled and the scarcity of hops may lead to reformulation of Big Hop, that brewery’s most popular brew, before summer’s end. I’m sure the same calculation is going on in a lot of microbreweries across the country.

I suppose the upside is that some of those musclebound beers I’ve written about in the past could be reformulated as well, but I fear it will come at the expense of the better hoppy beers. Time will tell. Meanwhile, if you’ve tried Big Hop let us know what you think.

image courtesy of East End Brewing Co.

Wow, this is the second time I’ve written a nice thing about Boston Beer Company recently! The first time, I was thrilled to see Jim Koch taking over the old Rolling Rock brewery instead of building anew to expand capacity. Now they’ve decided to make hops available for brewers impacted by the shortage of hops. Information about the program is available on Boston Beer Company’s website. Now maybe they have some barley to spare as well.

image from wikipedia

It’s a little late in the game for a top ten list, but here’s an interesting post from the Brookstone beer bulletin listing some of the top beer stories from last year. As per my earlier post, the biggest news for beer lovers may be the short supply of hops and barley, followed by the loss of Michael Jackson.

In Philadelphia beer news, the possible loss of Yards tied with the opening of Dock Street (which I still haven’t managed to visit, check back next week). Hopefully we’ll keep both.

If you know of another story which deserves to be in the top ten, share it here.

image from www.hillsideliquorstore.com

As you may have guessed, I like beer. In fact, I like beer so much that our wedding reception was at the Stoudt’s brewery, and the guests threw hops as we left the church.

Now, UK beer aficionados have what sounds like an even better option. Shepherd Neame, one of the oldest breweries in the UK, now hosts weddings. I’m actually quite surprised that the oldest brewery in the UK only predates Yuengling by a mere 130 years, but the place looks quite nice from the pictures. My wife, the Anglophile in the family, tells me it’s in a nice area as well.

If I were in the market, I’d have to consider it.

Photo from the Shepherd Neame website