Despite drought in the Pacific Northwest, hops growers expect to harvest 74.5 million pounds of the flowering, climbing plant used to provide the bitter taste of beer, says KIMA-TV in Yakima. That would be a 5-percent increase in production from last year. The United States is one of the leading growers of hops in the world and Washington State grows more than three-fourths of the U.S total. A trade group, Hops Growers of America, anticipates plantings will continue to expand in the Northwest. Grower Ed St. Mary told KIMA, “Keeping up with the demand is the biggest challenge.”
The U.S. hops harvest grew by 20 percent in the three-year period ending in 2014, according to the USDA. Some 38 million acres were harvested last year, up 22 percent from 2012. Dozens of varieties of hops are grown.
Extreme heat and drought “has the Yakima Valley’s hops producers fearing lower-than-average yields in some places and for some varieties, though they’re not sure by how much,” says the Yakima Herald. “Ann George, executive director of the Washington Hop Commission, estimates that some aroma varieties, favored by the booming craft beer industry, planted in areas with rationed water supplies, could produce at 10 percent below the average yield for the past five years.” Harvest begins in late August.