Sales update
Hop sales have plateaued as the brewing industry is impacted by increasing cost of living pressures. Beer volumes in Australia have declined ~100 million litres between 2019 and 2023. This trend is expected to continue in 2024, with hop-forward craft beers that often sell at higher prices being most effected. While this market has been very healthy for the past 10 years, it is now experiencing a contraction that we estimate to be ~15% of beer volumes between July 2023 and June 2024.
Brewers are navigating particularly tough market conditions at the moment. In response, HPA have strategically deployed increased sales, marketing and customer service resources to ensure our continued success. Chris Swersey, in the role of International Business Development Manager, is starting to gain traction in key target markets including the US, Canada and major Asian countries. These concentrated efforts will position us for a strong rebound when market conditions improve.
Crop Report
HPA recently published the 2024 crop report, proudly sharing the results of our latest hop harvest with staff, distribution partners, brewing customers, and the broader industry through a series of emails, social posts, and media coverage from the likes of Crafty Pint, ABC, The Mercury and The Myrtleford Times.
We picked 670 hectares across Victoria and Tasmania, which resulted in 1,340 tonnes of hops. This was a 177 hectare (21%), 480 tonne (26%) decrease year-on-year mostly due to some changes in global demand that led us to idle around 20% of our gardens. Oil content came in equal or above the 5-year average for all proprietary hops, with a particularly strong showing from Galaxy and Enigma that should lead to a great year of performance in beer.
To celebrate the end of this year’s harvest, we sponsored the Hobart Community Hop in Tasmania and the High Country Hop in Victoria. These festivals support the communities in which we operate, strengthen our relationship with the local brewers, and help educate consumers about the role hops play in beer. They featured fresh hop beers by Hobart Brewing Co, Moo Brew, Welcome Swallow Brewery, Shambles Brewery, Du Cane, Van Dieman Brewing, Buttons Brewing, Little Green Men Brewing, Communion Brewing, Little Rivers and Seven Sheds in Tasmania, as well as Bridge Road Brewers, Billson’s Brewery, Bright Brewery, King River Brewing, Mitta Mitta Brewing, Mountain Monk Brewers and Good Lands Brewing in Victoria.
Australian International Beer Awards
The Australian International Beer Awards is the largest annual beer competition in the world. It’s a valuable benchmarking opportunity for breweries of all sizes to secure internationally recognised credentials that will help their beer stand out in a crowd. HPA presented the trophy for Best Modern Pale Ale to Magaret River for their In The Pines NEIPA and Champion Small Australian Brewers to King Road (read our Q&A with their Head Brewer Steve Wearing here).
It was a great night for Aussie hops, with the 2023 Champion Breweries collaboration beer featuring Eclipse, Galaxy and Topaz, Moffat Beach being awarded a Consistency of Excellence Medal for their Shadow of the Moon Eclipse Strong Pale Ale, and Stone & Wood winning Champion Beer for their Hinterland Big Pale Ale featuring Eclipse and Vic Secret.
GABS
We sponsored the GABS Up & Coming Bar again in 2024 to show our support for new and emerging independent breweries across the country. We received 61 applications that were whittled down to 12 successful applicants including Communion, Du Cane, Ramblers Ale Works and SixTwelve Brewing in Melbourne, Ale Mary, Kicks, Slow Lane and Village Days in Sydney, and Common People, Hip Hops, Maddocke and Scarborough Harbour in Brisbane. This good news story was reported by Brews News.
Web Resources
Each year we receive invaluable information from our customer satisfaction survey. The most recent survey revealed our website was better suited to new brewing customers, so we’ve been busy building a suite of new resources that are designed to benefit our existing brewing customers:
- Hop navigator – Visual representation of raw hop and beer sensory profiles.
- Beer recipe book – Compilation of origin story, sensory data, analytical data, recipe examples for Aussie hops.
- Lot lookup – Enter lot number to preview or download certificate of analysis.
- Brewing calculator – Assistance calculating T90 replacement dose rates for Flex, Incognito, Spectrum and Lupomax.
- Technical hop advice – Interpreting COAs, storing hops, stand on selections, crop report, sustainability report.
- Hop sensory worksheets – Tools to assist in-house sensory assessment of hop performance in beer.
- Brand assets – HPA and hop variety-specific logos, graphics, photos and videos.
