4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns

[Chubber]

4 percent of the Hops Crop burns (http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/03/hops.fire.ap/index.html)

YAKIMA, Washington (AP) -- Federal investigators were set Tuesday to begin an investigation into a fire that ruined about 4 percent of America's yield of hops, used as flavoring in the brewing of beer and ale.

Yikes. I better buy mine before the price goes up.

[hooky]

This morning, a buddy called me and said CNN was reporting that a 40,000 acre hop farm had been burned to the ground in a wild fire.:D

[Otis_The_Drunk]

Yup, expect the price of hops to go up in the near future.

[Mill Rat]

Originally posted by hooky
This morning, a buddy called me and said CNN was reporting that a 40,000 acre hop farm had been burned to the ground in a wild fire.:D
Having been in or close to several news events that merited local TV news coverage, I figure that report was about about as accurate as the reports normally get, and maybe even a bit better than average.

[DecoJuicer]

Originally posted by Otis_The_Drunk
Yup, expect the price of hops to go up in the near future.

I can deal with the price of homes going up, I can handle the price of gas going up, I can even understand paying $3 for a gallon of milk, but I don't think I can accept the price of hops going up.

I blame George W. Bush.

[Chubber]

Originally posted by DecoJuicer
I blame George W. Bush. [/B]

I blame HOPEC artificially restricting hop production and staging these kinds of events to limit hop availability on the market and maximize profits.

Were the Lupilistas operating in the neighborhood? Anarcho-alco-terrorists? Al-cascadia? "Were you now or have you ever been a member of the Hop Union?"

"pungent aroma" indeed! With all those Yakima Partisans, how could you tell?

[dparsons]

Price go up? Probably. I noted that the fire accounted for 4% of the US annual crop and 1% of the worldwide crop. Seems to me you want a little more of a buffer than 1% to meet demand. The loss isn't that big on the market, but people's reactions will likely be big. I'd expect higher prices but not a lack of supply - unless the hop industry has more integrity than other industries and won't use something like this to price-gouge.

Alternatively, it may show up as a shortage on a couple varieties prominent in the Yakima valley and higher prices on those varieties.

[Mad Scientist]

I wonder what varities were lost?

[Chubber]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
I wonder what varities were lost?

It wasn't Hop Union, so I doubt that most of the hops that the craft brewers use will be affected. What does BMC Inc use for brewing? That is probably what burned. They won't be affected, their chemists can probably suppliment with hop oils or something until next year.

[steveh]

Waitaminnit - doesn't that say 4%? What about the other 96%? Doesn't seem like a huge loss.

"...used as flavoring in the brewing of beer and ale." Sheesh - even CNN.

"Fires have long been an expensive danger at hop warehouses, largely because of the potential for spontaneous combustion from heat buildup in bales of resin-loaded varieties." Huh? They're all resin-loaded, and I didn't know resin was flammable.

"Seventeen varieties of hops are grown in the United States, including aroma varieties which are added for flavor or fragrance and the bitter alpha varieties." Oh brother.

S.

[Chubber]

Originally posted by steveh


"Fires have long been an expensive danger at hop warehouses, largely because of the potential for spontaneous combustion from heat buildup in bales of resin-loaded varieties." Huh? They're all resin-loaded, and I didn't know resin was flammable.


Resin is both oil-based (high energy) and subject to oxidation. Oxidation is exothermic. It would stand to reason that a 14% hop was more liable to high temp conversion than a low alpha acid version. I wouldn't normally think that it would be enough to ignite, but if the hops had been dried first to low moisture, I can see it.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Chubber
Resin is both oil-based (high energy) and subject to oxidation. Oxidation is exothermic. It would stand to reason that a 14% hop was more liable to high temp conversion than a low alpha acid version. I wouldn't normally think that it would be enough to ignite, but if the hops had been dried first to low moisture, I can see it.

Seems to me that the article on CNN is suggesting that the fire was not accidental

[hooky]

It's probably like hay or any other green forage that's baled and stored. It's counterintuitive since the moisture is actually the cause of the fire.

It get's packed tightly into a bale and if there is excessive moisture, the heat builds up quickly in the middle. The hay isn't dead and it's still burning sugars (respiration). This is an exothermic activity. Start tightly stacking those bales in an enclosed space and the center could easily reach over 200 degrees F, since there is nowhere for the heat to go. They will eventually burn when the internal temp gets high enough and it comes in contact with the oxygen in the air surrounding the outside of the stacked bales. If there are hot spots within, moving the stack will also trigger a fire as air (O2) reaches the heat source.

Growing up on a farm, I learned all kinds of things that are totally useless for 99.99% of the situations in which I now find myself.


Temps in storage (http://www.co-opinsurance.com/safe/farm.html)

Yakima Times Initial Report (http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/287174717708439)

Apperantly, resin could be a contributing factor.More info from Yakima Times (http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/287182847431117)

[Wilson]

Originally posted by Chubber
I blame HOPEC artificially restricting hop production and staging these kinds of events to limit hop availability on the market and maximize profits.

Were the Lupilistas operating in the neighborhood? Anarcho-alco-terrorists? Al-cascadia? "Were you now or have you ever been a member of the Hop Union?"

"pungent aroma" indeed! With all those Yakima Partisans, how could you tell?

LOL!! :D

[Mad Scientist]

Damn:

"In the meantime, however, industry officials suspect one factor might have been that the warehouse, leased by S.S. Steiner Inc., contained bales of "super alpha" hops, known to be more unstable for storage because of higher amounts of oils and resins."

--And--

"Some of the hops stored in the warehouse were used to make such beers as IPAs, ESB, porter, stout, pale and brown ales, and English- and American-style ales. Brewers use hops to give beer flavor and aroma, and to act as a preservative. The two basic types are bitter hops, used in the boiling process to extract bitterness from the beer, and aroma hops, used in the finishing process. "

So there went Chinook, Columbus, Galena, Nugget, Simcoe, Warrior, Zeus, Horizonand others, probably american Magnum varities too. I'd be willing to bet that the summit variety, at 17 to 19% alphas got blitzed. The article says "Super Alpha hops"....

[steveh]

Originally posted by Chubber
Resin is both oil-based (high energy) and subject to oxidation.

Oxidation I'll buy, but hop resin oils aren't really fuel like other oils. But yeah, if the leaves were too dry - boom.

Then again, there are many instances of grain silos exploding into flame because of static charges from massive amounts of grain rubbing against itself.

S.

[Halgarmeister]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
So there went Chinook, Columbus, Galena, Nugget, Simcoe, Warrior, Zeus, Horizonand others, probably american Magnum varities too. I'd be willing to bet that the summit variety, at 17 to 19% alphas got blitzed. The article says "Super Alpha hops"....

It could be even less romantic than that! If hops are anything like tomatoes, those used for commercial BMC production may have names like AH394 or C17.

[hooky]

If it was indeed high alpha hops, it's safe to say the needle on the BMC hop meter wouldn't even flutter. It'll still be resting on 0.

[Mad Scientist]

Why do you need hops when all you need to brew a BMC beer is to wave a picture of hop flowers at the kettle....

[Mill Rat]

Originally posted by steveh
"...used as flavoring in the brewing of beer and ale." Sheesh - even CNN.

"Fires have long been an expensive danger at hop warehouses, largely because of the potential for spontaneous combustion from heat buildup in bales of resin-loaded varieties." Huh? They're all resin-loaded, and I didn't know resin was flammable.

"Seventeen varieties of hops are grown in the United States, including aroma varieties which are added for flavor or fragrance and the bitter alpha varieties." Oh brother.

S. As I previously posted on this thread, the accuracy of the reporting on this event was probably better than average. Unless you've got some PR slob out there handing out flyers that the ink-stained wretches can copy nearly verbatim into their stories, your will get these sorts of random inaccuracies. If they copy the PR handouts, you get the intentional inaccuracies the the PR slobs would prefer to have printed as news.

[steveh]

Originally posted by Mill Rat
As I previously posted on this thread, the accuracy of the reporting on this event was probably better than average.

So whatever happened to good old research -- rather than conjecture (or self condensing the facts)?

Trust me, it's not just beer facts I'd point the finger at, I'm skeptical because I see a lot of assumption and "facts" based on other written conjecture these days.

S.

[Chubber]

I heard that it was a couple of teenagers who heard that "like, you know you can like smoke them hops and you know it will give you like a total wicked buzz you know." Then someone dropped the bong when thier headache kicked in. :D

[Mill Rat]

Originally posted by steveh
So whatever happened to good old research -- rather than conjecture (or self condensing the facts)?
The ever-shrinking deadline as stories now get posted on the web with "30 minutes old" next to the headline, the reduction in news staffing in all types of media, but especially print as circulation declines, the ever-present tension between the desire to get the story right and the realization that if the reporter doesn't know what the hell it means, at least 80% of the readers won't know what it means either. Let me condense the story to it's bare facts:

Big warehouse on fire
Oregon
Lots of some sorta stuff for beer burns

Most common conclusion reached as a result of reading the story:

"The price of my Miller Lite will probably go through the roof like gas did. [belch]"

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Mill Rat

Big warehouse on fire
Oregon
Lots of some sorta stuff for beer burns

Most common conclusion reached as a result of reading the story:

"The price of my Miller Lite will probably go through the roof like gas did. [belch]"

:D

[Halgarmeister]

Aw come on, *nobody* drinks Miller Lite!


:D

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Halgarmeister
Aw come on, *nobody* drinks Miller Lite!


:D

Yeah really, if I have to stoop so low as to buy a SAB-Miller probuct, I'll at least buy Redhook....or Miller Low-Life, if there is nothing else...after all, it is the champagne of beers.....

[Otis_The_Drunk]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
Yeah really, if I have to stoop so low as to buy a SAB-Miller probuct, I'll at least buy Redhook....or Miller Low-Life, if there is nothing else...after all, it is the champagne of beers.....

{Belch!!!!!}

[Chubber]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
Yeah really, if I have to stoop so low as to buy a SAB-Miller probuct, I'll at least buy Redhook....or Miller Low-Life, if there is nothing else...after all, it is the champagne of beers.....

I have always said that if you are forced to drink a macro, at least go for one with taste. Bad taste is better than no taste in my book. Regular Coors, MGD, or that star in the Northern sky, Pabst Blue Ribbon. (Tall Boys on sale at my local beer bar for $1 during happy hour, sitting right next to the Chimay Bleu.)

[steveh]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
Yeah really, if I have to stoop so low as to buy a SAB-Miller probuct, I'll at least buy Redhook....or Miller Low-Life, if there is nothing else...after all, it is the champagne of beers.....

One more time - Red Hook is NOT a product of the A/B conglomo.

S.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by steveh
One more time - Red Hook is NOT a product of the A/B conglomo.

S.

I know, Majority ownership is by SAB-Miller