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Hop harvest is underway in the Yakima Valley with quality trending strong and acreage down slightly; Athletic Brewing names Dan Kleinman chief marketing officer; Wine and Beer Supply acquires Hop Havoc; and September marks Craft Malt Month. Plus an outdoor-for-the-first-time Great American Beer Festival, a one-month delay to the federal hemp ban, and Yakima's philanthropic Fresh Hop Ale Festival. Sources: NBC Right Now, Brewers Association, BevNET, Brewbound, Beer Connoisseur, Just Drinks, Great American Beer Festival, Fresh Hop Ale Festival.
Hops News is everything that makes the beer culture great, philanthropy, sustainability, and community all in one funk laden show.
This is The Beer Wire from Hops News for Wednesday, September second. On tap today: harvest is rolling in hop country, a supply-side acquisition on the East Coast, and a new marketing chief at Athletic Brewing. Let's pour.
Our top story: hop harvest twenty-twenty-six is underway. Picking machines are running across the Yakima Valley, the region that grows more than seventy percent of America's hops, and the early word is good. Toni Lynn of Yakima Chief Hops tells NBC Right Now that the quality coming off the bine looks excellent and yields look strong. The wider picture comes from the Brewers Association's pre-harvest roundup: just under forty-two-thousand acres strung for harvest this year, a slight dip from last year, after a warm, dry season with low disease pressure. The Association also flags potential shortages in some varieties, and it is urging brewers to talk with their growers early. The takeaway: quality looks strong, supply is tightening at the edges, and fresh hop beers start hitting taps within weeks — the best few weeks on the craft calendar.
Quick hits.
First — Athletic Brewing has a new chief marketing officer. Per BevNET, the non-alcoholic brewer has appointed Dan Kleinman, a marketing executive from the wine and spirits world. Co-founder and chief executive Bill Shufelt frames the hire as the next step in taking Athletic from category pioneer to global brand — one more sign of how big the non-alcoholic shelf has become.
Second — consolidation has reached the supply room. Brewbound's press wire reports that Wine and Beer Supply has acquired Hop Havoc, effective September first. The deal folds Hop Havoc's hops, fruit purees, and brewing supplies into a platform already shipping malt, yeast, equipment, and packaging from four East Coast warehouses. Hop Havoc keeps its name, and the pitch to brewers is one-stop sourcing.
Third — September is Craft Malt Month. Per Beer Connoisseur, the Craft Maltsters Guild is running its third annual celebration all month, with malthouses, breweries, and distilleries across North America hosting events and fundraisers spotlighting the farmers and maltsters behind the grain. Hops get the glory; this month, malt gets the microphone.
On the radar: the Great American Beer Festival goes outdoors for the first time in its history, October tenth and eleventh at Levitt Pavilion in Denver. And for breweries with a hemp-derived T-H-C beverage line, Just Drinks reports Congress has pushed the start of the federal hemp product ban from November twelfth to December eleventh as part of the new funding bill.
Last call. The Fresh Hop Ale Festival returns to Yakima on October tenth, and it pours for a purpose: the festival runs as a nonprofit and has granted more than five-hundred-thousand dollars to local arts and science programs over the years, from elementary school classrooms to a youth arts center. Beer giving back, in the valley that grows the hops — we will raise a fresh one to that.
That's your Beer Wire. Every story's source is named in the episode notes. We're back tomorrow morning — until then, drink something local, and keep an eye out for the season's first fresh hop pours.