The Bar Towel

The disastrous heatwave in the PNW, not to meantion the active and potential wildfires, is bound to have a big impact on hop supply. I am not familiar with how much heat or drought tolerance hop vines have. Having unsuccessfully tried to grow some myself, I'm clearly ignorant. It seams the situation is so extreme, the news can't be good.

We've been blessed in recent years with an explosion of interesting new varieties, many coming specifically from the PNW. It's great that more new regions have come on board, but I'm not sure that many of them are up to volume or even up to speed with new varieties yet.

I suspect an unfortunate shortage is looming. Hopefully, no promising new varieties will be lost.

Sorry to be a downer. I guess we at least still have our lives and homes.

I was just reading in an email from Stan Hieronymus that the USDA reported a record year for hop production in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

His updates get quite in depth at times, but it truly is an insightful look into the world of hops. You can join his mailing list at https://appellationbeer.com/blog/hop-queries/

contracting stuff for next year was fine with zero to minimal price increase

Badlands brewery did mention in their blog that the 2021 malt harvest was the worst in ages

https://www.badlandsbrewing.ca/blogs/ne ... l-releases

Interestingly I've been noticing more nitro beers than I've ever seen as of late, seems everyone is jumping on the trend. I've also been noticing a lot of beers seem more watery these days, lacking mouthfeel. My friend had a theory that brewers are cutting back on malt to offset costs, and nitro might be a way of increasing perception of creaminess to compensate.

All theories, but I can say for certain that my tasting notes have noted a lack of body/watery mouthfeel a lot more frequently these days.

Yes, from my limited readings North American barley growers were hit the hardest this past season, and the maltsters are now seeing just how bad it is in there facilities. It will be up to the brewers now to keep the products inline with previous expectations.