Mid-year acreage estimates for all major hop growing countries have been published. After the 13.4% acreage increase from 2007 to 2008 there has now been a decrease of at least 11.6% for crop 2010. The largest decreases have occurred in USA and China, and the decrease in the PRC could in fact be larger than published. Overall the decrease takes worldwide hop acreage back to its 2007 level, which at the time did not supply enough alpha to meet demand. In the meantime variables have changed so short-term supply should be adequate. ...

Once every two years we publish the results of our world beer analyses. For this study, worldwide brands with a yearly production of at least 1 Million hl were selected. These brands represent approx. 43% of the total beer production in 2009, about 720 Million hl beer respectively.

As you know, the shortfall of alpha acid for the brewing industry from crops 2005, 2006 and 2007 resulted in acreage increases for crop 2008.

1) After quite a long winter, spring work was started in the hop fields some days ago. Some farmers are still fastening the wires for training the hop vines. Normally, this work will have already been done whilst the ground is frosty in winter in order to avoid surface damage to the soil by heavy machinery.

Traditionally used by the British cask ale brewers to add a strong, distinctive hop character to beer in cask, this practice has also now been adopted by the world craft brewing sector to produce a range of significantly different products.

"Table"

Every year we monitor the situation concerning residues of harmful metals by screening hops immediately after harvest. In our investigations, all important European varieties from different growing areas are considered. To guarantee a representative analysis, ten samples of large lots are selected and then combined into one composite sample for each variety. The latest results for the 2009 crop are presented in the table. Metal analysis has been conducted at the “Research Center Weihenstephan”. All concentrations given are mg/kg.

In crop 2008 we showed the variations in the contribution of hop oils to beer depending on the crop year. As a representative hop aroma substance we have chosen Linalool, which correlates rather well with the sonsory impression of a hoppy aroma in beer.