A cool craft beer has become part of the uniform for self-respecting hipsters from Brooklyn in New York to London’s Hackney. Now the thirst for microbrews made by small independent brewers has led to a scramble for hops, used to add flavour and bitterness.
In the US, where the craze was born, the $14bn craft beer industry has seen annual double-digit production growth over the past few years. This has doubled the price of the specialist aroma and flavour hops favoured by craft brewers to about $7 to $10 a pound over the past five years – the highest since 2007-08, when the market was hit by a severe drought.
Craft beers use between four and 10 times more hops than the average lager produced by multinational beer groups, and are often described as “hop bombs”.