The countdown to this year’s harvest has begun! We’ll be picking just over 500 hectares of hops so brewers across Australia and around the world can create the aromas and flavours in their favourite beers.
Despite a varied season, all farm operations were completed according to schedule. We experienced an unusually cool spring that initially slowed plant growth, particularly among our first-year experimental hops. However, this was followed by hot and dry conditions in early summer that reinvigorated plant growth and led to the development of ample flowering sites.
Unfortunately, the recent heatwave conditions also sparked nearby bushfires, creating smoke haze that temporarily reduces photosynthesis and affects cone growth. However, given it’s early in the growing season and most of the crop is still in burr, there is little to no evidence the smoke will impact the quality of our finished product.
Air quality continues to improve. We are upgrading our weather monitoring systems to enable early identification of impurities and harmful particulate matter. We are also hopeful the recent bushfire reduces the likelihood of another event during the critical harvest months.
We’ll be processing Crop 2026 through the Hop Central facility, working to increase throughput and improve quality by applying learnings from the previous year as well as those from Michael Monshing’s recent visit to Haas’ facilities in the US.
