Latest report from USA Hops shows expansion of hop farming outside the Pacific Northwest

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The latest hop acreage reports are out from USA Hops. There's plenty of numbers to crunch but one take away is non-Pacific Northwest (PW) hop acreage grew nearly 65% between 2015 and 2016.  Non-PW hops still only account for 3.9% of hops grown in the United States, so the Pacific Northwest states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho continue to dominate US hop production.

Still, new hop farming regions outside the Pacific Northwest are emerging. For example, the state of Michigan is the largest non-Pacific Northwest hops producer at 650 acres, up over 100% from last year. My home state of California checks in a 130 acres, an increase of 53% over last year.  Other notable states include Colorado at 200 acres (up 60%), Wisconsin 297 acres (up 75%) and New York at 300 acres (up 20%). US hop production increased 18.5%, so the growth of these non-PW regions are outpacing the industry considerably.  It bears watching whether these new regions will continue to develop beyond a few hundred acres, which currently can only supply a small brewing niche'.

There's plenty in the report to keep a hop trend watcher busy which you can check out for yourself here:  

2016 USA Hops Acreage Report