Rhizomes

Bada Bing! I have scored a "certified" organic plot of land and I have rhizomes on order. I have chosen 4 different rhizomes (Tettnanger, Sterling, Golding, Cascade) based on what I have brewed in the past and what I plan to in the future, and what grows well in this region.

Living in metro San Diego it can be difficult to find any unoccupied piece of land. It seems, like most heavily populated areas, land is a premium, and most of the time they are building on it. So I feel lucky to have found a small plot where I can grow organic hops! I am paying rent by giving homebrew, awesome.

Well, that was easy now the hard part begins: farming...?

Hops update

By know you are probably well aware of the worldwide hop shortage. There has been a lot of information now about why there is a hop shortage its price increase. In Europe there has been a drought in Austrailia, a over abundance of rain in the UK, and a decrease of hop acreage in the US. It takes 3 years once hops are planted to yield a profitable crop, that is assuming that they are not infected.

For more information and possible hop substitutions you can visit Hop Union's website:

www.hopunion.com/hopunion-variety-databook.pdf

More green for same old green

I have heard all about hops and their price increase, but I was still shocked by the price increase at the homebrew store that I shop at, especially since I live in the west coast. The prices increased by 40%-100% depending on availability and popularity. The regular prices used to be $2.50/2-ounces and have skyrocketed to $3.50-$5.00/2-ounces, with some hops unavailable. After a brief conversation with some of the workers they admitted that they will have to change a few recipes and stop producing a couple of their beers. I find this very disappointing and a saddening state of affairs.

Although, I do not see this hop shortage and price spike to be over soon, I hope that over the next year that hop prices and availability will become more reasonable soon.