Hop Products Australia (HPA) has completed its 2025 harvest, picking 566 hectares across Victoria and Tasmania, resulting in 1,468 tonnes of hops.
This saw a 128 tonne (9.5 per cent) increase despite a 104 hectare (15.5 per cent) decrease across six proprietary hops – Eclipse®, Ella™, Enigma®, Galaxy®, Topaz™ and Vic Secret™ – as well as Cascade.
According to HPA’s annual crop report, due to the current oversupply situation, global demand for hops remains soft, this led HPA to idle 32 per cent of their gardens.
HPA’s CEO Owen Johnston said: “This production decrease allowed us to extend our focus to sustainability initiatives including soil remediation, cover cropping, cycling aging rootstock, and scaling up leading experimental hops in our breeding program for commercial brewing trials.”
Johnston said the beer industry, from growers and suppliers to brewers, is facing countless challenges as a result unfavourable bureaucratic, economic and environmental conditions.
“It’s more important than ever for HPA to work in partnership with our brewing customers. Communicating early and often is the best way to ensure we have your needs covered, whether that be availability of proprietary hops for core range beers, commercialising experimental hops for flavour diversity, or innovative hop products for more sustainable beverages. HPA stands ready to help brewers create awesome flavours that bring hoppiness to beer lovers everywhere.”
HPA expects the impact of this year’s crop to remain strong, with oil content coming in slightly below or equal to the 5-year average for most proprietary hops.
Johnston said the star performer this year was Ella™, with both oils and alphas above the 5-year average.
“Brewers should expect a real depth of flavour and complexity when pairing Ella with other new world hops.”
Eclipse®, Galaxy® and Vic Secret™ all experienced a slight decrease in alphas and are expected to produce well-balanced beers with true-to-type flavours and aromas.
As a part of their mission to deliver hops with the highest possible quality and the lowest possible flavour variability, HPA has worked alongside their sister company John I. Haas for the past two crops years to conduct a comprehensive sensory review of bale lots, excluding any material that is not true-to-type. This collaborative approach has reduced the spread of analytical data across pellet lots, and translated to more consistent performance in beer.
In addition, the recent opening of HPA’s Hop Central has set a higher standard for Aussie hops than ever before, as the facility harnesses cold chain bale storage, temperature-controlled production rooms, and modern pelleting and packaging equipment.
HPA’s Processing Facility Manager Michael Monshing praised the efficiency of the new facility.
“Hop Central has significantly reduced our processing time while maximising oils in the finished pellets and minimising oxygen in the foils. It’s all in the name of consistent impact in beer,” he said.
Sustainability is also a high priority for HPA as they remain a committed signatory to the UN Global compact, with this year’s increase in yield helping to reduce emissions output and improve brewing customers indirect emissions.