Good Hop News

In a post about the ongoing difficulties with hops over on Appellation Beer, there appeared a ray of sunlight in the comments. Jay Brooks of Brookston Beer Bulletin reported this:

At the annual hop conference in late January, it was announced that between 5-7,000 new acres will be planted in the Pacific NW this year, around 6,000 in and around Yakima, and the rest split between Oregon and Idaho. That’s the good news, obviously

He notes that it's almost all high-alpha (the kind the macros use), but that's not bad. An extra 6,000 acres is a good thing no matter how you slice it. Now, we just have to wait 'til 2010 for it to hit the market...