Ralph Olsen - Hop Union

Last night I went out to the Issaquah Brewpub to hear Ralph Olsen, the owner of Hop Union in Yakima, give a talk about everything hops. The brewpub is a part of Rogue and I will add a small review at the bottom of the post. Ralph didn't have a prepared talk, he just took questions and went from there, which was more than enough to fill an hour and a half. I wish I took a notepad to write down some of what he said, but writing the day after from memory will have to do (note to self: notepad for next speaker).

A key topic had to do with the hop shortage which was very interesting to hear from someone very much in the business rather than a reporter. There were a few things that stuck out with this. First was that this is not the first time this has happened, the hop prices are very volatile and have been for the 30 years he has been in the business. There were times in the 80's and 90's where a pound of hops was going for $30 or $60, much like last year, and other times it has been in the single digits. A key to what happened was the abundance of hops in the late 90's and early 2000's that drove prices down, this drove farmers to change crops or sell off the land, thus the total hop acreage was at an all time low. Then sure enough the excess supply ran out with less acreage and some down crop yields and prices climbed. Simple high school economics really. Where the media got things wrong was, zero breweries shut down due to hops and there was never a time that suppliers were out of hops. Another big, not very surprising, point was how the craft market is such a small speck of the hop market, so has little effect on it. The big guns really run the market. On a positive note, Ralph's company deals 98% with craft brewers, so someone to be talking to in the future. I asked a question regarding futures contracts on hops, which by the way scored me a bag of hops, so paying $5 to hear him got me a $7 bag of hops. But currently they sell 75-80% of their hops on futures, which is more of a recent trend if anything. That figure use to be much lower. They sell them up to three years in advance, with a few at five years. With the uncertainty right now, having a contract is necessary. At the same time, with the volatility of the market you don't want to lock yourself in when the market could drop off costing you a lot of money.

Some other notes that might be of interest. There is a new hop called Citra, as the name implies is a citrus hop with a lemon character. First thing that popped in my head was a wheat beer, so we will have to see if and when that hop is available for purchase. They did mention letting some home brewers give it a try, i threw my name in, so we'll see. Another hop, Amarillo (a personal favorite) is a unique hop in that it is the only hop that is owned by a grower. So basically one guy controls all of the Amarillo hops in the world, good position for him with the growing popularity of Amarillo.

There were a ton of more things that were talked about, just nothing else that stuck with me enough to write down. Hopefully if it was useful I will remember sometime.

Quick review of the Issaquah Brewpub: Sort of a neat deal because it is owned by Rogue, but still makes its own beers. So basically, they have a bunch of Rogue beers on tap and bottles for sale and at the same time have their house beers on tap and for sale. They only make their frog beers or whatever on location, no Rogue stuff. Overall it was a decent place, alright atmosphere and had a small town feel. My biggest problem is with Rogue in general, while I like their beers, is that I just find them to be vastly over priced. I dont think all of their bombers command a $6 price tag.