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The Winter Holidays are nearing…and clearly the craft beer biz isn’t slowing down any time soon. But no worries, the Beer Buzz is always on the case, keeping you up on all the beer news and lifestyle that matters. Plus we’ve an all-important update on what we’ve been drinking lately and you don’t want to miss that!
As Craft Beer Slows Nationally Demand For Local Hops Wanes (Colorado) – Back in 2010, there were high hopes for locally grown hops in Colorado. And number of new hop farms began with hopes of bringing hops to Colorado’s backyard.
Those startup hop farms benefitted greatly from the support of an unlikely benefactor ,Golden Colorado’s Coors Brewing, who in an effort to help get them established paid the startups premium prices for their hop crops. According to KUNC farmers “reported being paid up to $15 a pound, far above the going market price at the time of around $4.”
But with craft beer slowing to 5% after years of double-digit growth, the demand for hops is no longer growing at the rate that was expected…Leaving startups hop farms in Colorado and as well as in other states economically vulnerable.
Colorado’s crop acreage is 7th in the country, and in spite of Coors support, “it hasn’t grown since 2016” according to NPR. “And small hop industries in Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa have seen little to no growth in the last few years. Only Michigan and New York have remained competitive at a time when experts say the specialty hops market is saturated.”
Words To Drink By (Fort Collins, CO) “If it hadn’t been for Coors I don’t think there would have been 200 acres of hops growing in Colorado…I think that people would have given up a long time ago.” Scott Dorsch / Odell Brewing
What do you mean, I’m cut off?
Shocker! Two Beer Rules Proposed For Axe Throwing Business (Lincoln, NE) – From the “who would of seen this coming?” department comes a report in the Lincoln Journal Star, that the “Lincoln City Council wants strict rules for ax-throwing businesses, limiting customers who are going to throw axes to two beers.”
What We’ve Been Drinking Lately (Boston, MA) – We recently tapped into something festive from Boston Beer that’s dark, rich and exclusive to the Samuel Adams Winter Classics Variety Pack. A robust American take on a British style that dates back to 18th century London, Samuel Adams Holiday Porter is a 5.8% ABV seasonal that could stand as year-round.
