UK Hop Industry faces crisis due to pub closures. Time for a national hop growing plan?
The Financial Times (19th June)reports that the UK hop industry faces a crisis due to the three month long closure of pubs (at least for on-trade) and subsequent fall in demand for hops.
The issue is that since many brewers haven’t been brewing or are brewing less their stocks of hops remain high. Hence orders for 2021 amount to only 40% of potential production.
That means that fewer hops may get planted in the first place for next year. The British Hop Association are quoted as saying that if the situation is not resolved by the autumn acreage under hops will be reduced or wiped out.
The FT suggests this might put the future of classic UK hops like Fuggles and Goldings under threat. While some craft beer drinkers and even a veteran CAMRA member like myself might fleetingly wonder if this might not be the end of the world, the thought should be swiftly dismissed. Both Fuggles and Goldings can produce excellent beers. The problem comes when brewers wave a hop or two at a brew and the balance between malt and hops tips heavily to the former.
There is a call for Government aid and that seems to me reasonable. After all it was the Government which required pubs to shut (albeit later than they should have).
However that does raise a wider question. Beer is the UK’s national drink. Should there not be a national plan for hop growing designed to secure and promote the future of UK hops, drawing in hop growers, brewers, SIBA and consumer groups like CAMRA?
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