But might help locals with some supply chain issues regarding getting hops
when it comes to hop supply, there are two issues:
1. there
used to be cyclical and systemic hop shortages due to the fact that hops take at least 3 years to reach maturity, which resulted in supply corrections being delayed. when there is a glut in the market, prices drop, and farmers rip up the plants to move on to something more profitable. then supply drops, prices rise, so growers plant new hops - but it'll be 3 years before new fields come online to meet the demand = hop shortage.
2. for certain highly desirable hops (AKA "ipa hops" like citra, mosaic, galaxy, simcoe, sabro, etc.) demand outstrips supply. citra and mosaic are
the most planted hops in terms of acreage but it's still not enough to satisfy craft breweries. these hops are available, but at prices that a multiples of lesser-desired hops (which are slowly being phased out). when brewers say "i can't get citra", they dont' mean it's not available, they mean they can't get it at a reasonable/viable price.
issue #1 has become less of an issue as the hop industry has matured and has moved to long-term contracts. breweries project their needs 3 to 5 years out, sign contract for these amounts, and growers have some demand stability... hence the use of the past tense when i described the issue. there hasn't been a significant hop shortage in over a decade.
issues #2 is irrelevant to a MD-sourced noble-like hop that isn't useful for IPAs. locally-produced, small-scale farmed hops like those from a nascent MD industry are bound to be more expensive than equivalents grown on large, highly-productive farms in WA, OR and ID.
so MD hops will undoubtedly find a niche for themselves among locavorians, and they'll keep the MD farmers employed, but again... i question the game-changingness of this development. i'd be most happy to be proven wrong
