Hop Notes 14: CBC 2024 Hop Preview
Expert analysis to help you make better hop decisions.
CBC 2024 rolls into Las Vegas this month. Here’s my recommendations for hop-related seminars, booths, or otherwise interesting experiences at our big industry conference. For attendees, maybe this helps inform your plan. For those of you not making the trip, maybe this is a nice peek at the festivities.
A Hop Sniffing Competition, 3 Seminars, and a Public Hop Tasting Party
Make sure you have these 5 hoppy happenings on your CBC calendar!
Hop Nose It All:
Technical Subcommittee Meetup - Monday | 4 - 5:30 PM | Bassano 2601 - 2605
Part of the Technical Subcommittee Meetup is - surprise - also the Hop Nose It All Competition and Fundraiser for the Hop Research Council! All CBC attendees are welcome to participate.
What is the Hop Nose It All Fundraiser?
Super fun, blind hop sniffing and identification competition. Whoever can correctly identify the most amount of hop varieties is the Hop Nose It All winner. The winner gets immortalized on the trophy, a small cash prize and, serious bragging rights.
If you’ve never smelled hops blind and tried to identify them, it’s really challenging - come try it out for yourself!
Your’s truly is excited to toss his proverbial hat in the ring and put his nose to the test - all for a GREAT cause of supporting public hop research and development.
Seminars:
Exploring Hop Picking Windows and Their Impact on Aroma and Flavor - Monday | 1 - 2 PM | Venetian Ballroom E
Session description: Hop varieties can express a spectrum of aromas depending on harvest dates, directly impacting the flavors in your beers. Join us to discuss integrating in-field sensory techniques and testing to determine harvest readiness for optimal aroma. We will share how brewers have collaborated with growers to push the boundaries of defined harvest windows, resulting in a broader range of hop aromas that impart unique flavor profiles.
Presenters: Jeff Dailey, Claire Desmarais, Tom Nielsen, Alexandra Nowell
Eric’s Notes: This is a fascinating field of study and is presented in a very compelling way by supreme hop experts - if you have ever wondered about the intricacies of hop picking timing this is a must attend.
The Next Great Hop: What's New in Public Hop Breeding and How You Can Contribute - Tuesday | 2:30 - 4 PM | Venetian Ballroom E
Session description: The United States Department of Agriculture's Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS) hop geneticists, Dr. John Henning (Corvallis, Oregon) and Dr. Kayla Altendorf (Prosser, Washington), will share characteristics of the experimental varieties currently in the public breeding programs, with an emphasis on varieties in the Advanced and Elite Line stages. Attendees will have an opportunity to sniff hop varieties currently in the Elite Line stage and provide sensory feedback via the app SampleOx. Additionally, representatives from the Hop Research Council and Hop Quality Group will share details of their programs in support of public hop breeding and ways brewers can get involved.
Presenters: Alicia Adler, Kayla Altendorf, John Henning, Eric Sannerud (OMG), Daniel Sharp
Eric’s Notes: I’m totally biased but this session is going to be an incredible look into the public hop breeding process with a special focus on some of the most innovative hops in the pipeline - swing in and get on the public hop band wagon!
Selecting Quality Hops: Alternative Methods for Small Breweries - Wednesday | 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM | Venetian Ballroom B
Session description: This seminar will educate brewers in several practical alternative methods to traditional hop selection with a focus on quality improvements. Here, traditional hop selection refers to the selection of a single lot or multiple lots of whole leaf cone at a minimum contract quantity. We will discuss why some form of selection is an essential brewery tool, the advantages and disadvantages of different options, how to diversify and mitigate risk, how to build systems for success, and how to communicate with suppliers to strengthen partner relationships.
Presenters: Aaron Justus, Sam Pecoraro
Eric’s Notes: I feel like this session is from a fever dream of mine; brewers talking to brewers about the benefits of engaging deeper with your hop supply? In a way that doesn’t require a trip to the PNW every fall? Sign me up.
Public Hop Tasting Party
Hop Quality Group Experimental Public Hop Beer Tasting - Tuesday | 5 - 9 PM | Aces and Ales 2901 Tenaya Way Las Vegas, NV 89128
Provide feedback using the SampleOx app provided by the Brewer’s Association and help Hop Quality Group inform the development of public hops
Free tastings for feedback located in the Aces and Ales VIP room
6 Advanced Lines beers to taste made by Firestone Walker
2 Elite Line Beers to taste made by Deschutes
Elite beers will be on tap for purchase at main bar upfront as well
BrewExpo America Booth Highlights
BrewExpo America is a vast expanse of sales and marketing folks handing out free stuff and trying to get your email address. Here’s a list of hop-related booths I’m going to be stopping at. I’ve asked reps of each of these companies the same question; "Why should a brewer stop in at your booth?" Their answers are included below if they responded.
Mill95 - Booth #265 - Idaho’s hop pellet mill. Mill 95 emphasizes on Idaho grown, public hops that are never run of the mill.
Billy Goat Hop Farm - Booth #608 - Let's shake some beer, drink some tail feathers, throw some cornhole bags, and play a little scratch-n-sniff with the only hops ever to win the Cascade Cup back-to-back! It's time for craft hops in craft beer, baby!
HAAS - Booth #1085, 1087, 1178 - Visit the HAAS booth at CBC for inspiration to create your next great beer or beverage and to meet the HAAS farmers, breeders, scientists and brewers that work tirelessly to grow the hops and develop the hop products that will spark your imagination and enable your creations.
Charles Faram - Booth #1186 - We will be featuring a broad range of hop varieties from all of the key growing regions of the world, and including the new releases from our hop breeding program, CF25 and CF 26.
Lupulin Exchange - Booth #1281 - Because we'll be giving away epic Vegas souvenir t-shirts (while supplies last) and because John Bryce loves listening to your feedback, which he uses to make life easier for your future self.
Hop Growers of America - Booth #1557 - Come meet the producers at the heart of the hop industry and evaluate samples of Anchovy, ADHA-218, Centennial, Cascade, Elani™, and Vista while enjoying 4 single hopped IPAs exquisitely crafted by Stone Brewing Company.
The Hop Guild - Booth #1629 - “Smell the Guild Difference”. We’ll be hosting Hop Selections and Sensory all three days with one day fully devoted to new Public and Private Experimental Hops. Hops from Hop Research Council, Hop Quality Group, New York Experimentals and new crazy hops with even crazier names!!
Hop Revolution - Booth #1726 - Hop Revolution is bringing a selection of brewer cuts from our just completed 2024 harvest for brewers to rub at the Crosby Hops booth. We're especially excited to highlight the differences between our early, mid and late picked Nelson across our farms, not all Nelson is equal!
Glacier Hops Ranch - Booth #1866 - To see what hoppy surprises the Montana Cowboys are giving away this year!
HopSteiner - Booth #1887 - Brewers should come to learn about our full portfolio of hops and hop products they can use to make their beer better, reduce their hop costs, and gain brewing efficiencies. They can also try several beers made with the newest, and most sustainable hops in the world (ie. Alora, Helios, HS16660).
HopTechnic - Booth #2344 - One of the most advanced hop analysis labs in the world happens to be a part of Virgil Gamache Farms - they’re using their lab power to investigate thiols, pick windows and other exciting edges in hop knowledge.
IndieHops - Booth #2385 - To learn about Indie Hops varieties Strata, Meridian, Lórien, Luminosa and Audacia, and find where these hops can be tasted in beer during CBC.
New Zealand Hops Ltd - Various Booths - While we won’t have our own booth, legendary New Zealand Hop Breeder Dr. Ron Beatson and Brent McGlashen from MacHops will be in attendance splitting time across BSG, Charles Faram and YCH booths. NZH will be conducting live CY2024 selections on the tradeshow floor in Lounge A in Hall D at BrewExpo.
Other booths I’ll be stopping at:
Yakima Chief Hops - Yakima Valley Hops - Hollingbery - Totally Natural Solutions - Hop Havoc - Lupulin Exchange - Roy Farms - BSG - CMG - Hops Direct - HVG - British Hops - Crosby Hops - Abstrax- Hop Head Farms - Bohemia Hops - Top Hops - TBI Pro Beer Supply - Hops Direct
More hop content:
C02: The carbon footprint of hops, and sustainability in general, is becoming a louder marketing message. HopSteiner has perhaps been the visible with their C02 per pound produced charts. The always great Hop Queries from Stan Hieronymus compared two different crop years of HopSteiner charts - showing there can be a lot of variance in C02 intensity within a variety based on the growing season.
Layoffs: The totals acres from the second round of hop acreage cuts will not be known publicly until the USDA strung-for-harvest report is released but the impacts are showing already: Roy Farms has laid off a significant chunk of their hop farm staff.
Bifenzate and (E)U: Bifenzate is an insecticide that was used by US farmers to control mites in hops. Recently the European Union changed it’s interpretation of the safety of this chemical for human consumption, making crops produced with it, including hops, ineligible for human consumption. Breweries and merchants are scrambling to swap, shift and otherwise reduce the impact of this ban. Case in point: Charles Faram UK and YCH inking a deal to sell YCH crop into the no-longer-EU British market.
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That’s all for now. If you have topics you’d like to read about in Hop Notes my inbox is open 24/7: ericrsannerud@gmail.com.