Poor hop harvests anticipated in Europe

Estimates from BarthHaas suggest that hop harvests this year will be substantially lower than average in Germany and Czechia, bringing more woe to brewers across Europe. Germany is the world’s second biggest producer of hops, after the United States. However, the heatwaves and drought of this summer have severely affected production, particularly of early-maturing varieties, such as Hallertau Mittelfrüh, though there is hope that rainfall in late August may have rescued late-maturing varieties. Overall, German hop yields are expected to be 18% short of an average year, and 20.4% below last year’s – with 38.1 tonnes harvested as opposed to 47.8 tonnes in 2021. Spalt, just south of Nuremberg, has the severest predicted drop, with a -32.6% deviation from the average is anticipated. Hallertau (in Bavaria), which produces almost a quarter of the world’s hops according to some estimates, is also expected to produce a harvest 18.5% below average. Czechia’s forecast 4.7 tonne hop harvest ...