The Hidden Benefits of Hop Vintage
TOP-SELECTED LOT(S) AT A PREMIUM VALUE
Boost your beer and your profit margin by selecting with hop vintage in mind
For years now, we’ve been gathering anecdotal evidence about hops. We’re particularly interested in what varieties brewers gravitate toward and why? Which hop lots are standouts and what character do they bring to beer? And one of the things we’ve noticed is that experienced brewers are not afraid of utilizing standout lots of previous crop year hops. If the hops are brewing well, why mess with a good thing, right?
Why indeed, we ask, would brewers not take advantage of this opportunity??
The reality is that today’s hop market can help breweries lower their cost of goods and at the same time be in control of their hop quality and consistency. When grown, harvested, processed and stored correctly, previous crop year hops can be a goldmine for brewers — allowing them to brew with top selected lot(s) while reaping the the benefits of steep discounts.
When it comes to unique Indie varieties — Strata, Lórien, Luminosa, Meridian and Audacia — Indie Hops comes close to being vertically integrated as a business; meaning, we control all aspects of our supply chain. We develop the hops — from breeding to sensory analysis to all aspects of launching the hop commercially. We control all aspects of hop propagation, where the hops will be grown and how many acres of the hops will be grown. We work closely with all of our growers on harvest timing to ensure they are picked during an optimum window, then process the hops at our own pellet mill which has been engineered to lock in just-harvested freshness. The pellets are then expertly packaged and expertly stored at our mill — all by a mill crew that has been working for us since almost the beginning. So brewers can rest assured that hops sourced from us have received the utmost care and attention.
The Surprising Benefits to “Hop Vintage”
Industry expert Stan Hieronymus has written on the topic, most recently in the Spring 2026 BIG issue of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine. In this article, titled “Selecting Better Hops — Whatever Your Size, Wherever You Are,” Stan outlines practical steps for brewers to access the best hops available to them. He states, “Merchants have launched new programs — including lower minimums to qualify for selection — clearly intended to include opportunities for smaller breweries. To take advantage, the people in charge at those breweries may need to change their mindset.”
Stan goes on to highlight the fact that Indie Hops has taken steps to put brewers in the drivers seat by allowing them to “select” the best lots of previous crops. Indie Hops has created one-ounce foils of hop pellets that can be sent to brewers, so they are able to evaluate various lots and select the one(s) that best fit their needs. In the article he quotes Indie Hops CEO Jim Solberg, “There’s a stigma among many brewers that says previous crops are bad quality. For many years, that was true… it’s a very different situation now, with some of the very best versions of a given hop variety being from previous crops.”
Are you a brewer that loves the tropical passion fruit of Strata, the orange or grapefruit citrus hit, or do you lean more toward the sweet, sticky cannabis dankness? Either way, Indie can facilitate selection from the best Strata vintage available.
In another Stan Hieronymus article titled, “Hop-Tub Time Machine: Prior Crop Years Offer Both Value and Quality,” Stan reminds readers that brewers also win medals with previous crop year hops. His article offers valuable insights for brewers to consider. A key takeaway from his article (quoted below) is very much in line with how we’ve seen hops perform.
Stan writes about the success that Chris Baum, Varietal Beer’s co-founder and head brewer, has had in producing award-winning beers using previous crop year hops: “Located amid hop dealers in the Yakima Valley, Varietal is in a better position than most breweries to go shopping for hops that some might call leftovers. Nonetheless, its beers — such as Sup Cuz IPA, which won silver at the 2021 GABF — prove that while older hops may be cheaper, the real reason to buy them is that they can produce award-winning beer.”
Stan also shares some tips from Baum, who says brewers can find quality lots of previous crop year hops by asking their supplier if “there may be a small portion available from a lot that other brewers thought was outstanding, or perhaps selected… and by not being shy about obtaining samples. If what’s in a fresh bag smells good, [Baum] feels confident about using it. “Do sensory [every time] before it goes in,” he says. “It works for us.””
Read the full article here.
“Varietal is in a better position than most breweries to go shopping for hops… Nonetheless, its beers — such as Sup Cuz IPA, which won silver at the 2021 GABF — prove that while older hops may be cheaper, the real reason to buy them is that they can produce award-winning beer.”
Hop Vintage by the Numbers
The Spring 2026 BIG issue of Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine also has an incredibly valuable read for brewers titled: “Dig into Your Supply Chain.” This informative read from Kate Bernot highlights an essential aspect of brewery success: healthy profit margins. Bernot’s article states: “…high-volume, low-margin manufacturing is especially vulnerable to increases in cost of goods: It requires a lot of sales to cover those increases. Instead, you would generally do well to focus on reducing costs rather than attempting to cover them with volume sales, says Adam Faietta, procurement and supply-chain director for Agrowgate, a strategic sourcing group for the beverage industry. “Every fractional or decrease in cost has a lot quicker impact to your bottom line” than sales, he says. “That right there is the reason …you should be paying close attention to what your costs are.” As craft beer nuts, our team at Indie Hops remains optimistic that beer sales will once again trend upward, but will our industry see the wild growth of the 2010s again? And will those sales take off quickly and unexpectedly? We’d love it if they did, but all signs point to the fact that the craft beer industry will continue to face some tough hurdles. According to the Brewers Association Report, 2024 US Craft Brewing Industry Figures, “2024 was the first year since 2005 that the number of breweries that closed outpaced brewery openings nationwide. “In a mature market, not every year is going to be defined by substantial growth,” said Matt Gacioch, the Brewers Association’s staff economist. “While progress may not come in additional production volume, it can still come in honing operations, business practices, and world-class beer.” Perhaps now — when reduced COGs can help your brewery stay competitive and can be a lifeline to better times — is a great time to shift mindsets on previous crop year hops. We’ve made it easy for brewers by allowing them to evaluate samples from various lots of previous crop years. AND we are able work with volume needs to ensure that there is enough inventory to ensure consistency in beer recipes.
We’ve also taken steps to better understand what happens to previous crop inventory over time from a chemistry standpoint.
Key Takeaway
Analysis of all six samples showed very little HSI variation; and in relation to total oil composition and free thiols, no strong evidence of aging effects in older samples were observed.
→ How quickly do hops in storage lose the flavors that brewers want?
→ Is HSI (Hop Storage Index) an accurate indicator of previous crop hop quality?
→ Are newer crop year hops always better?
→ And, is it right to look at hops like fresh produce: once it’s picked, it’s all downhill from there?
The opinions of brewers with regards to these questions and about brewing with older crop year hops varies based on the personal experience of the brewer, views acquired from the preferred practice at breweries where they’ve worked, and the “talk of the town.” A great many factors are in play, confounding efforts to prove that one practice or another is essential to good hop flavor in beer. This allows some myth, lore, and legend to creep in.
Enter the science of Shellhammer and Chenot! While their full report will not be published until Q2/Q3 of 2026, they have shared some preliminary data with Indie Hops from a study they conducted on Strata chemistry only (no sensory analysis). Three crop years of Strata (2022, 2023, & 2024) from two different farms and fields were compared. Samples were standard vacuum foiled T90 pellets that had been stored at 28°F since harvest.
| Hop Samples — Farm / Field A | Hop Samples — Farm / Field B | Crop Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2STT-250-004 | 2STT-207-317 | 2022 |
| 3STT-250-004 | 3STT-207-317 | 2023 |
| 4STT-250-004 | 4STT-207-317 | 2024 |
Of the oils tested, “most compounds [in 250-004 samples] showed less than 25% variation,” which is approximately equal to the “intrinsic year-to-year variability” of hops in general. When analyzing free thiol compositions of the six samples, “strong year-to-year and field-to field variations” were observed; but again, no clear aging effects were found.
Early conclusions from this data suggest that “when package oxygen remains low during storage… no clear aging effects [are] observed.” And in this particular data set, “2022 samples look[ed] as good as 2024 in terms of oil and thiol composition.” Prof. Shellhammer and Dr. Chenot point out that sensory analysis is needed to confirm these findings, as “possible undetected issues (e.g. fatty acid oxidation products) may exist. In addition to this data set from Strata samples, the OSU team has much more sensory and chemical data to share on several other varieties, as different varieties behave differently, but a main takeaway with respect to Strata: this variety is quite resilient with respect to aging.”
As brewers ponder their upcoming hop needs, we urge them to also consider the science versus the lore.
→ Wouldn’t it be interesting if there is usually more variation in the character of a variety that is due to intrinsic differences between crop years and terroir (i.e. location) than due to how long it was cold stored (at least for 3 or 4 years)?
→ Might you have more quality and consistency in your beer by sticking with the same field or crop year when you find something you really like rather than automatically starting over each year searching for the perfect lot out of fear of brewing with older hops?
→ And could your bottom line (and beer) benefit by tapping into hops from previous crop years that are showing just as much character as current crop year hops?