Hop Crisis Hitting Home

[Stu McKinlay]

Get your malty brews worked out, or get ready for using some different hops for your hoppy pale ales.

Hope nobody is after any Riwaka hops. I just purchased some (there's a first for everything) and was told it was the last 100g left.
There's close to nought in the way of imported hops.

[Alasdair]

Hauraki Homebrew seems to have some Riwaka - I got 100g (my first puchase of Riwaka too) sent down yesterday.

[Stu McKinlay]

Yeh, I suppose there are still a few retail packets out there. I order direct from NZ hops.

[jt]

no Motueka or Riwaka available. A late frost affected these
varieties and this years yield was very low."

Go the Super Alpha Bitter Bitter, Mild, Brown, Pils, NZPA, NZ Pilsner and Wheat !

[Dan]

Im glad ive got a stash of my own homegrown!

[denimglen]

Argh, I've only got 20g homegrown left.

A little stash in the freezer.

I was really hoping we wouldn't be affected by the shortage - seemed like we were going pretty well compared to everyone else overseas.

[jt]

Yup we are doing ok, plenty of good New Zealand hops at pretty much same price as last year by the look of it.

[Barry]

I just bought a kilo each of cascade and goldings from NZHops - unsure whether they're local of imported though. Don't mind either way, was pretty happy to discover they had any.
Frustratingly, they don't have an inventory - they ask you what you want and tell you whether or not they have any. So, ask!

[jt]

The selection I asked for must be unpopular .. no problems with NZ Hallertau, NZ Willamette or NZ Styrian Goldings.

Styrians produce the biggest bang for my buck, great flavour & aroma and fantastic in a combo with Willamette.

No need for anything exotic or the latest out of stock hot hop .. all happy here at Bad Pactice Brewing :-)

[Barry]

I have an ordinary bitter in the keg, my first try of styrians. I got a 100gm packet from the brewcraft shop in Albany, but alas they'd only been kept in a fridge and they look and smell like they're about 6 years old (i.e. hardly smell at all). I'm keen to get some fresh to try sometime. I've got 2 packets of Willamette from the same source, same condition. It's actually only just hit me this last week that fresh hops make such a massive difference, all of my NHC beers will be with my new NZHops order, I'm hoping it turns up today so I can brew this weekend.

[jt]

Dead right Barry, nothing like fresh.
I'm still surprised that NZ Hops don't date their consumer product. the only clue to age is the old vs new packaging, but even then the new packaging is a couple of years old now

[Stu McKinlay]

Yeh, I have had freshness issues with hops from homebrew stores.

To quote Doreen, who handles the orders, when I said I was looking for imported fuggles, goldings, cascade and styrian - "our (NZ) hops are better anyway".

I'll really miss my fuggles though. The last two packets were just used in the three batches I brewed two weeks ago.

[jt]

So what's the hop supply like from Morebeer Stu ?