Cascade: Is the Honeymoon Over?

For about ten years now there has been a fascination in the growing circles for Cascade. Cascade can certainly be characterized as "America's Hop". It was bred from Fuggle and a Russian variety known as Serebrianker. Cascade since 1972 has been the predominant aroma hop brewed with in the United States. Its citrus and almost grapefruit tones have been the gem of many brewers, but given the number of years that Cascade has been in the mix the hop has lost a bit of its luster with new, younger brewers. Fact is, Cascade just is not "sexy" any longer.

This is not to say that Cascade is not still in high demand. It is. So much in fact that the majority of commercial growers in the United States plant and sell Cascade. An important component that is impacting Cascade right now is that the country is experiencing incredible growth right now with new breweries. Many of these will not be large enough or capitalized enough to enter into long term "contracts" for hops like Cascade. New brewers are faced with working with hops that are readily available or those they can purchase via "spot" pricing directly from suppliers. This has open the door and increased the demand for hops other than Cascade for sure, but also may explain the fact that the majority of the growers regionally are planting Cascade which very will may fill the void for some breweries.

When we started growing there were three hop farms (known) in Virginia. The largest being that of Taylor Smack's at Blue Mountain Brewery where its Cascade goes into its popular Full Nelson Pale Ale release. As more growers have entered the scene, the only barometer was that set by the early growers on which varieties can or will grow here in Virginia. If you examine the recently published map by Old Dominion Hops Cooperative you will find that the majority of growers are working solely with Cascade.

A big factor in the Cascade fascination is the fact that the variety has very successful in growing regionally throughout Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland. This tends to be less risky of a planting proposition for new growers. Obviously, there is considerable expenses on growing hops and growers want to plant what they are convinced will be successful.

That being said however, our recent surveys sent out to regional breweries demonstrates that Cascade is no longer the most desirable hop to be sourced locally. In fact, those brewers that can procure Cascade via contracts would actually prefer to get other hops grown in the region to use in special wet or harvest ales as well in both dried leaf and pellet form. This means that there is a "market" that is not being met by growers that are solely growing Cascade in 2014.

The Cascade market will also always have considerable pressure commercially from large scale producers and though demand will always be there for Cascade, it appears as though many breweries are looking for other varieties locally.

The hop honeymoon with the younger brewers may be over as many of these brewers established themselves home brewing with varieties from all over the world and have been exposed to other hops that they wish to work with now that they have established formal brewing operations.