2024 Australian Hop Crop Report
Hop Products Australia (HPA) has released their 2024 Hop Crop Report.
Hop Products Australia (HPA) have completed this year’s harvest. They 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.
They have used this production decrease as an opportunity to focus on quality, with greater flexibility to refine their 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 continues to invest in quality improvements. As is the case with most building projects, their 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 they were prepared for this possibility. Instead, crop 2024 was processed at their existing Victorian pellet plant which was maintained in a state of readiness for this eventuality.
They have also been tightening their 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 their blends, and consistently high-quality pellets are presented to their brewing customers.
HPA is in awe of the resilience our industry has shown over the past few years. They are managing their production costs to minimize 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.
