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WakeboardrB
Pepe Silvia


Registered: 05/18/03
Posts: 13,678
Last seen: 11 years, 7 months
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Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns
#6129502 - 10/03/06 05:30 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns
Quote:
YAKIMA, Washington (AP) -- Federal investigators were set Tuesday to begin an investigation into a fire that ruined about 4 percent of America's yield of hops, used as flavoring in the brewing of beer and ale.
The fire started shortly before noon Monday in a 40,000-square-foot (3,600-square-meter) warehouse operated by S.S. Steiner Inc., one of the four largest hop buyers in the Yakima Valley of central Washington. By mid-afternoon flames engulfed most of the building, sending up plumes of smoke and a pungent aroma.
Municipal fire crews, aided by regional firefighters, ripped away metal siding to shoot water directly onto the hops.
Based on an industry official's estimate of the quantity of hops in the warehouse, the loss could amount to $3.5 million to $4 million. The impact on brewers and beer prices was unclear early Tuesday.
Company President Paul Signorotti would not comment.
The United States produces 24 percent of the world's hops, and about three-fourths of the U.S. crop comes from the Yakima Valley. Hops were a $77 million crop in Washington state in 2004. More than 40 families grow hops in the valley, which is dotted with orchards, vineyards and farms.
Fires have long been an expensive danger at hop warehouses, largely because of the potential for spontaneous combustion from heat buildup in bales of resin-loaded varieties.
"That's just a possibility that we'll look at," East Valley Deputy Chief Mike Riel told the Yakima Herald-Republic, "but it is very high on the list."
No one was in the warehouse when the fire started, Riel said.
With the fire under control Monday night, authorities told the newspaper an investigation into the cause would be led by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Steiner is part of the Steiner Group of Germany, one of the largest international hop growing, trading and processing companies in the world. The Yakima branch manages Steiner's North American buying and processing, according to the company Web site.
Besides being one of the largest growers in the valley, Steiner is one of three large merchants that buy from other growers in the area. The others are John I. Haas Inc., the grower-owned cooperative Yakima Chief and Hop Union, which specializes in sales to craft brewers.
The fire destroyed or ruined about 10,000 bales, each weighing about 200 pounds (90 kilograms) and likely worth $1.75 to $2 a pound, Ann George, administrator of the Washington Hops Commission in nearby Moxee, told the Herald-Republic.
Seventeen varieties of hops are grown in the United States, including aroma varieties which are added for flavor or fragrance and the bitter alpha varieties.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/03/hops.fire.ap/index.html
-------------------- Same thing happened to me when I played Neil Armstrong in Moonshot. They found me in an alley in Burbank trying to re-enter the earth's atmosphere in an old refrigerator box.
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kosmic_charlie
Truckin' in style


Registered: 03/18/01
Posts: 5,203
Loc: Deep Elem
Last seen: 1 month, 13 days
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Re: Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns [Re: WakeboardrB]
#6129514 - 10/03/06 05:33 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
*sips my rocky mountain pale ale*
--------------------
Goin' where the water tastes like wine.
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OneMoreRobot3021


Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 61,024
Loc: the sky
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Re: Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns [Re: kosmic_charlie]
#6129520 - 10/03/06 05:34 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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hold me!
-------------------- Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake. -Erik Davis
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rod
Ψ


Registered: 06/29/05
Posts: 3,727
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Re: Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns [Re: WakeboardrB]
#6129620 - 10/03/06 06:02 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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 I guess it might be time to stock up.
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thetonebone72
Hunter -Gatherer


Registered: 03/11/06
Posts: 1,125
Loc: Oregon
Last seen: 5 years, 1 month
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Re: Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns [Re: rod]
#6129649 - 10/03/06 06:10 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Oh the humanity!!!
-------------------- Hunt On, Good Fellow
 
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CaptainH13
Scum


Registered: 10/29/04
Posts: 10,287
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Re: Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns [Re: kosmic_charlie]
#6129651 - 10/03/06 06:11 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
kosmic_charlie said: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
*sips my rocky mountain pale ale*
* as I sip my Pabst
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THE KRAT BARON
one-eyed willie
Registered: 07/08/03
Posts: 42,409
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Re: Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns [Re: CaptainH13]
#6129654 - 10/03/06 06:12 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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-------------------- m00nshine is currently vacationing in Maui. Rumor has it he got rolled by drunken natives and is currently prostituting himself in order to pay for airfare back to the mainland but he's having trouble juggling a hairon addiction. He won't be back for a long while.
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Corporal Kielbasa

Registered: 05/29/04
Posts: 17,235
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Re: Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns [Re: WakeboardrB]
#6129787 - 10/03/06 07:04 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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good thing a lot of good hops come from Oregon and europe. ....
Maybe this means budwiser will have to step up and get the goods!
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WakeboardrB
Pepe Silvia


Registered: 05/18/03
Posts: 13,678
Last seen: 11 years, 7 months
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Re: Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns [Re: Corporal Kielbasa]
#6129826 - 10/03/06 07:13 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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My take on it is that it shouldn't cause any problems for major breweries in the United States. Most of them use very small ammounts of hops in their brews anyways and are more likely to have a large portion of the supply secured.
Micro Breweries on the other hand might get fucked. Most of them rely on certain varieties of hops for their signature taste and if a particular type was decimated in the fire then it could mean certain Micro Operations could be up shit creek without a paddle.
-------------------- Same thing happened to me when I played Neil Armstrong in Moonshot. They found me in an alley in Burbank trying to re-enter the earth's atmosphere in an old refrigerator box.
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domite
Puppet

Registered: 04/12/03
Posts: 2,978
Loc: Who's askin'?
Last seen: 10 years, 6 months
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Re: Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns [Re: WakeboardrB]
#6129839 - 10/03/06 07:16 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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4%?
can't be too much of a price increace.
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Corporal Kielbasa

Registered: 05/29/04
Posts: 17,235
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Re: Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns [Re: WakeboardrB]
#6129845 - 10/03/06 07:18 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Cascade hops are often used for real! But this may just bring new beer to the plate, micro brews are versatile and with good Brewster's they can adapt.
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WakeboardrB
Pepe Silvia


Registered: 05/18/03
Posts: 13,678
Last seen: 11 years, 7 months
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Re: Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns [Re: domite]
#6129948 - 10/03/06 07:35 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
domite said: 4%?
can't be too much of a price increace.
Think of it this way. That's 2,000,000 lbs (more than 900,000kg) that one single supplier lost. While that may be 4% of the total US supply, that could be 25%, 50% or more of the distributors total amount.
And if you are a small brewery in the area and this company is your sole supplier.... Well that could mean Big Trouble in Little China...
-------------------- Same thing happened to me when I played Neil Armstrong in Moonshot. They found me in an alley in Burbank trying to re-enter the earth's atmosphere in an old refrigerator box.
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Hempster
Stranger
Registered: 09/08/06
Posts: 64
Last seen: 17 years, 4 months
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Re: Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns [Re: WakeboardrB]
#6130061 - 10/03/06 08:08 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Cascade Hops are bitter as fuck anyway
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Skunk420


Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 18,524
Loc: inside
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Re: Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns [Re: WakeboardrB]
#6130641 - 10/03/06 10:18 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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That is not a good thing, beer is part of daily consumption, just like food. Beer is food in fact.
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