TOPIC:

hi guys, i know an avid gardener who is considering growing hops (in a small scale at first) in ireland for sale to the irish market, i told him i would ask you guys to assess the general market conditions. so i have a few questions for ye.

1.)How much hops would you buy in a year in kilo's Approx. (leaf hops only please)

2.) What is the interest in Irish grown Noble hops?

3.) What do you think s a fair price for Irish grown hops without exact alpha acid measurement?

4.) would you consider the mid point of the Alpha acid % as a fair way to sell the hops

5.) What do you think of the idea in general?

Thanks guys any input would be very much appreciated.

If he's planning on growing high alpha hops I'm sure he'll get some buyers because often it doesn't matter to home brewers where the bitterness comes from as long as it isn't too harsh.

The real money is in aroma hops because they add great character to beer.

Hops without an alpha acid content are a bit of a gamble. Home brewers have become accustomed to having all the technical data that pro brewers avail of, so he might struggle in that respect.

Yeah, I doubt I'd buy hops without knowing the alpha content. I'll be growing my own for that.

Is there no lab in Ireland that could test hops for AA content?

I would have thought aa% in bittering hops would be more important as i thought that aa% contributes to bittering more than aroma/flavour?

You would still need to know AA content I think regardless