Australia: Hop Products Australia harvests bigger crop this year despite some area decrease

Hop Products Australia (HPA) has completed this year’s harvest. They picked 566 hectares across Victoria and Tasmania, which resulted in 1,468 tonnes of hops. This was a 128 tonne (9.5%) increase despite a 104 hectare (15.5%) decrease across six proprietary hops – Eclipse, Ella, Enigma, Galaxy, Topaz and Vic Secret – as well as Cascade, Craft Brewing Business reported on May 6.

Global demand for hops remains soft in the current oversupply situation, which led HPA to idle 32% of their gardens. HPA’s CEO Owen Johnston said “This production decrease allowed us to extend our focus to sustainability initiatives including soil remediation, cover cropping, cycling aging rootstock, and scaling up leading experimental hops in our breeding program for commercial brewing trials.”

Impact in beer is expected to remain strong, with oil content coming in slightly below or equal to the 5-year average for most proprietary hops. The star performer this year was Ella™, with both oils and alphas above the 5-year average.

Johnston said: “Brewers should expect a real depth of flavor and complexity when pairing Ella with other new world hops.” Eclipse, Galaxy and Vic Secret all experienced a slight decrease in alphas, and are expected to produce some well-balanced beers with true-to-type flavors and aromas.

HPA’s mission is to deliver the highest possible quality, with the lowest possible flavor variability. For the past two crop years they have worked alongside their sister company John I. Haas to exclude material that is not true-to-type from their blends, which are based on the whole-crop averages for oils, alphas, moisture and HSI.

Commissioning Hop Central has set an even higher standard, harnessing cold chain bale storage, temperature-controlled production rooms, and modern pelleting and packaging equipment. HPA’s Processing Facility Manager Michael Monshing said “Hop Central has significantly reduced our processing time while maximizing oils in the finished pellets and minimizing oxygen in the foils. It’s all in the name of consistent impact in beer.”