Articles published under the media release byline are news produced by the relevant business and remain unedited by Brews News. This media release was circulated by Hop Products Australia.

2021 Crop Report: HPA celebrate growth in Galaxy® yield for 11th year in a row Hop Products Australia (HPA) have completed their 2021 hop harvest. They picked 675 hectares that resulted in 1,526 metric tonnes of hops.

This was a 44 hectare (6.9%) increase and a 25 metric tonne (1.6%) decrease year-on-year. Despite total yield coming in slightly under expectation, Galaxy® yield grew 7.2% year-on-year. Managing Director, Tim Lord was excited to share “this marks 11 years of continuous growth for Galaxy®, with the exception of 2016 when HPA was hit with significant hail damage.”

Eclipse® looks set to follow in Galaxy®’s footsteps after exceeding expectations in its second year of commercialisation.

“Sustainably scaling up Eclipse® , Galaxy® and Vic Secret™ has been the focus of a continuing $35 million expansion in Victoria that will take HPA’s total
farming operation to more than 800 hectares at completion” Lord says.

All additional acreage will reach commercial maturity by 2024, at which point Eclipse® is forecast to reach 180 metric tonnes, making it HPA’s third biggest proprietary variety.

HPA Sales & Marketing Manager Owen Johnston takes us through the full hop report on the BreweryPro podcast.

Impact in beer remains strong, with this year’s average oil content coming in above the 5-year average for all varieties except Enigma®. These high quality outcomes are on track to continue now HPA has restructured the business to create a division of Agronomic Services with the purpose of improving yield, quality, and efficiencies across their farming operations.

Head of Sales & Marketing, Owen Johnston commented “this is an extension of HPA’s strategy to grow alongside brewing customers by continuing to offer choice and diversity through the commercialisation of experimental varieties, and supporting successful beers by backing our more popular Aussie hops with significant acreage”.

The highly contracted position of crop 2021 means that a very limited amount of hops will be available in the short-term. This situation, together with HPA’s expansion project drawing to a close, suggests that forward contracting is now more important than ever for supply security.

“Brewers are absolutely encouraged to communicate their Aussie hop needs sooner rather than later” says Johnston.