Record Year for Hops

Craft beer makers, and drinkers, can celebrate the 2019 hop harvest knowing that there will be plenty of product for the new season. Production in Idaho, Oregon and Washington for the 2019 crop year totaled a record 112 million pounds, up 5% from the 2018 top crop of 107 million pounds.

The combined area harvested for the three states hit a record 56,544 acres, which is up 3% from the year before. Harvested acreage rose in Idaho and Washington but fell in Oregon. The United States hop yield hit an average 1,981 pounds per acre, which is up 38 pounds from a year ago.

Washington remains the big dog in hop production with 73% of the U.S. crop. Idaho accounted for 15% of the crop and Oregon had 12% of the crop. The six leading hop varieties in Washington included Citra, Cascade, Zeus, Simcoe, C/T/Z and Mosaic and accounted for 50% of the production. In Idaho, C/T/Z, Mosaic, Chinook, Zeus, Citra and Cascade were top varieties hitting 65% of the state’s hop production. In Oregon, Nugget, Cascade, Citra and Willamette were major varieties, accounting for 50% of production.

The 2019 value of production for the U.S. hop crop totaled $637 million, up 9% from the previous year. The table below shows key facts of hop production for the 2019 year.