Hop Products Australia (HPA) have completed this year’s harvest. We picked 670 hectares across Victoria and Tasmania, which resulted in 1,340 tonnes of hops. This was a 177 hectare (21%) decrease and a 480 tonne (26%) decrease year-on-year across six proprietary varieties – Eclipse®, Ella™, Enigma®, Galaxy®, Topaz™ and Vic Secret™ – as well as Cascade. This year’s oil content came in equal or above the 5-year average for all proprietary hops, with a particularly strong showing from Galaxy® that should lead to a great year of performance in beer.
Crop 2024 looks a little different to previous years because of some changes to global demand. This led HPA to idle around 20% of our gardens, resulting in a year-on-year decrease across all proprietary hops. In the current state of global oversupply, this was a necessary step toward rebalancing supply and demand.
We have used this production decrease as an opportunity to focus on quality, with greater flexibility to refine our standard operating procedures and harvest each variety at optimal maturity. Impact in beer is expected to remain strong, with this year’s average oil content coming in equal or above the 5-year average for all proprietary hops. The two star performers were Galaxy® and Enigma® with both oils and alphas above the 5-year average, ensuring good quality pellets that should deliver a great year of true-to-type flavours and aromas in beer.
HPA continue to invest in quality improvements. As is the case with most building projects, our new Victorian pellet plant took longer than expected to get up and running. It was not commissioned in time to process crop 2024 as planned, but we were prepared for this possibility. Instead, crop 2024 was processed at our existing Victorian pellet plant which was maintained in a state of readiness for this eventuality.
We have also been tightening our minimum quality standards over the past few years, conducting a sensory review of any material flagged as non-conforming at any stage of the production process. If subsequent data analysis reported a significantly lower alpha and oil content, or a significantly higher HSI this material was subject to assessment for potential faults and true-to-type aromas. This process ensures only great material goes into our blends, and consistently high-quality pellets are presented to our brewing customers.
HPA is in awe of the resilience our industry has shown over the past few years. We are managing our production costs to minimise any effect on hop pricing, while continuing to invest in technology, infrastructure and process improvements that will ultimately benefit our brewing customers. In the current state of global oversupply, availability of Aussie hops is better than ever. As supply and demand returns to balance, we encourage our brewing customers to consider their Aussie hop requirements, and communicate them early and often.
