BS: future beer shortage?

Subject: BS: future beer shortage?
From: beardedbruce
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:02 PM

Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns
POSTED: 9:53 a.m. EDT, October 3, 2006
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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.

The fire started shortly before noon Monday in a 40,000-square-foot (3,600-square-meter) warehouse operated by S.S. Steiner Inc., one of the four largest hop buyers in the Yakima Valley of central Washington. By mid-afternoon flames engulfed most of the building, sending up plumes of smoke and a pungent aroma.

Municipal fire crews, aided by regional firefighters, ripped away metal siding to shoot water directly onto the hops.

Based on an industry official's estimate of the quantity of hops in the warehouse, the loss could amount to $3.5 million to $4 million. The impact on brewers and beer prices was unclear early Tuesday.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/03/hops.fire.ap/index.html

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:11 PM

This has bin Ladens fingerprints all over it.

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: MMario
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:24 PM

no problem 50% of our hop crop is exported anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:26 PM

Shane warned people about this a long time ago.

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: MMario
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:30 PM

trivia! 70% of Autstralian Hops are produced by a US company owned by a German Hop Cartel!

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Peace
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:30 PM

And here's what Danny and The Juniors had to say about it:


Bah-bah-bah-bah, bah-bah-bah-bah
Bah-bah-bah-bah. bah-bah-bah-bah, at the hop!

Well, you can rock it you can roll it
You can stop and you can stroll it at the hop
When the record starts spinnin'
You *chalypso* when you chicken at the hop
Do the dance sensation that is sweepin' the nation at the hop

Ah, let's go to the hop
Let's go to the hop, (oh baby)
Let's go to the hop, (oh baby)
Let's go to the hop
Come on, let's go to the hop

Well, you can swing it you can groove it
You can really start to move it at the hop
Where the jockey is the smoothest
And the music is the coolest at the hop
All the cats and chicks can get their kicks at the hop
Let's go!

Let's go to the hop
Let's go to the hop, (oh baby)
Let's go to the hop, (oh baby)
Let's go to the hop
Come on, let's go to the hop
Let's go!



Well, you can rock it you can roll it
You can stop and you can stroll it at the hop
When the record starts spinnin'
You *chalypso* when you chicken at the hop
Do the dance sensation that is sweepin' the nation at the hop

You can swing it you can groove it
You can really start to move it at the hop
Where the jockey is the smoothest
And the music is the coolest at the hop.
All the cats and chicks can get their kicks at the hop.
Let's go!

Let's go to the hop
Let's go to the hop, (oh baby)
Let's go to the hop, (oh baby)
Let's go to the hop
Come on, let's go to the hop

Bah-bah-bah-bah, bah-bah-bah-bah
Bah-bah-bah-bah. bah-bah-bah-bah, at the hop!

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:32 PM

Thank God Bob Dylan came along when he did.

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:37 PM

y'all know about the little trick of grafting female hops stems onto Sativa roots don't cha?

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Peace
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:40 PM

And there was the hula hop craze . . . .

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:40 PM

"Hop High, ladies, three in a row"

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:52 PM

" ruined about 4 percent of America's yield of hops, used as flavoring in the brewing of beer and ale"

Americans - Beer - FLAVOUR?

Who's fooling who?

Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Dead Horse
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:52 PM

Do you guys mean to tell me that them thar Yanks actually put hops into that awful stuff they have the nerve to call beer?






(there, that should put the cat among them thar pigeons. heh heh)

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:53 PM

We've got plenty of beer over here....
Is that why you all keep visiting?
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: MMario
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 02:54 PM

well - brewers in the US have been known to wave hops in the vacinity of their vats.

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: jeffp
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 03:08 PM

There is plenty of good beer here. I make some of it myself. Just avoid anything from Anheuser-Buesch, Miller, Coors or any of the other megaswill producers. I include Samuel Adams in that list, BTW.

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 04:16 PM

"...you CALYPSO WITH your chicken at the hop..."
They don't write 'em like that anymore (Thank your Higher Power).
Well, damn--that's like predicting an AIR shortage. Life as we know it may cease...What's hubby gonna do????? Circle the wagons, grab your shotguns, head for the hills....Oy, life's gonna get tough. Tw

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: GUEST,dax
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 04:20 PM

Thank God that the Bud Clydesdales are still producing a constant urine flow.

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: MMario
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 04:31 PM

see The Legend of Budwiesser

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Kaleea
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 04:34 PM

Ain't no tears
in my beers
    cuz th' hops were burned this year . . .

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: GUEST,lox - helpless with laughter
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 04:56 PM

Peace -

You have burst one of my ribs -

The fact that you put the whole song in just made it worse.

(sore rib muscled teary eyed tittering lox

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 06:00 PM

"Americans - Beer - FLAVOUR?

Who's fooling who?"

geeze, Geoff...didn't you get any of the GOOD beer when you were here? I'd have given you one of my Dogfish Head ales.

We now have almost any style and quality of beer/ale you could wish for. Of course. it isn't available at every corner store, nor is it anywhere near the volume as the swill, but there is little excuse for complaint if one makes ANY effort.

I currently have Red Hook ESB and Old Dominion ale, and have not drunk swill in maybe 10-12 years.

I also KNOW what wondrous beers you have in the UK, and I'd suppose that you have a larger % of good stuff available easily....but when are you Brits gonna admit that we can & DO brew good stuff? *grin*

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 06:54 PM

When Americans admit that the world series is a silly name for something with two countries in, and a few other things of this order, Bill....

I'm just waiting for my latest batch to finish settling. Trying to get a nice light ale up here is almost impossible, so it's easier to make it.

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 10:52 PM

Yeah...the World Series is sorta silly, but if it were renamed NOW, who'd know what they were talking about? (and it's not as though you have teams begging for on invite..*grin*)I'd agree to a renaming, anyway. Suggest a name...

But that is hardly the same thing as perpetuating an old belief as fact, long after it has ceased to be so. In 1977, there were about 3 decent breweries in the US...now there are hundreds.

(who,me? sensitive on the subject of beer?.....well, yes..)

(I do admire the willingness to learn the art of home brewing, though. I wish I had tried it years ago...)

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 07:01 PM

Actually the question is probably about the lost 4% of hop production. Are the missing 4% the ones which the people who try to brew decent beer want to buy?
Then again, you could just brew MILD and not need hops at all.
Quack!
GtD - one time editor of Tyke Taverner ( Bradford branch of the Campaign for Real Ale ).

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 08:16 PM

"Yeah... the World Series is sorta silly, but if it were renamed NOW, who'd know what they were talking about?"

er, who'd care in the REST of the WORLD? ... :-P


Well, they renamed the Aussie Interstate Cricket Comp from something called "The Sheffield Shield" (nearly a century of tradition) to the highest commercial bidder (currently a milk company! - who will it be when they go broke?), and _I_ didn't know what they were talking about...

Funnily enough, the ABC (public FTA radio & TV) has a policy of not using commercial names, so they started calling the comp the Inter State Cricket Comp.... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 08:19 PM

"Inter State Cricket Comp"

actually they called it "The domestic Cricket Competition"...

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: JenEllen
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 02:41 PM

You haven't smelled foul until you've smelled hops on fire. The Steiner warehouse is right across the street from the building I work in on Monday mornings, and it was rank. I thought hop kilns were the worst smell around, but I've since been proven wrong. *bg*

Word locally is that it is a hit, but not insurmountable. But at roughly 6lbs of hops per vat of beer, a warehouse gone is a LOT of damage done.

Good news, anyone in the area, this weekend is the Fresh Hop Ale festival in downtown Yakima. Good bands playing, and you have to try fresh hop ale at least once in your life!

Subject: RE: BS: future beer shortage?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 08:14 PM

Awwww, c'monn here! The fire destroyed a mere 4% of US domestic hops production, fer chrissake! Some of the above posts want to make it sound like it was 40%, or even more!

Most of US production is exported, anyway.

What is the loss in terms of world hops production?

I don't think you'll notice any perceptible diminution of beer supply because of this, nor any significant cost increase.

Dave Oesterreich