National hop inventories are down in the wake of the projected 2026 harvest, according to a late September USDA report, lower by 9 percent to some 105 million pounds in 2025. The U.S. hop industry has been working through an oversupply situation since inventories peaked in 2022.

The USDA also reported that total acreage in the major hop-growing region remained steady from 2025 at more than 41,000 acres strung. But the yields from most of those acres go to the major breweries, those that make more than 100,000 barrels annually.

“I think what we’re seeing is the market leveling out,” said Brian Tennis, Omena, Mich., hop-merchant. “There’s actually a shortage of some varieties. Tariffs are also playing a big role.

“There’s been a lot of acreage that has either been ripped out or idled over the past couple years,” said Tennis, founder of Hop Alliance. “If the price drops below a certain threshold, they’re going to idle some of those farms to get the price back up.”

Upper Midwestern hop growers aren’t included in the national statistics because they mainly sell to smaller local breweries. As an example, Michigan’s 410 craft breweries produced some 267,660 barrels in 2025, the most recent data available. To be included in USDA statistics, a brewer must produce a minimum of 100,000 barrels.

Even so, Michigan producers have sold or will sell all the hops they harvested this month in a season they characterized collectively as normal to above normal, with “pretty decent” yields.

Midwestern hop acreage continued to decline in 2026. From 800 acres at the height of the 2010’s craft brewery trend, Michigan’s acreage dropped to 150 acres this season. Still, the state had the highest acreage compared to neighbors Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

“Michigan has the second highest crop diversity production in the nation, behind California,” Michigan State University Extension Educator Rob Sirrine noted. “And because of (Lake Michigan) and our environment, that allows us to grow a wide variety of crops including hops, which is great.

“Hops is an interesting industry because you don’t need a lot of acreage to supply a lot of hops,” Sirrine continued. “It’s one of those niche, specialty crops.” Still, he pointed to the departure of two major producers in the recent past as a major reason for Michigan’s total acreage drop.

With a startup cost of $10,000 to $12,000 per acre and highly specialized machinery for tending, harvesting, and packing the crops, growers have to consider a complicated set of financial factors before entering or exiting the industry than traditional crop farmers.

Hops are a perennial that take a couple of seasons to establish before they produce reliably. Their 18- to 20-foot-high trellises are like a vineyard built on stilts with connecting cables. One 14-by-4-foot hops grid can nurture 1,000 plants, and it takes 80 poles fill an acre. In spite of such economics, craft brewers still want something new and trendy for their beers every year.

“They’re always looking for that new exciting hop aroma or flavor to include in their beers,” Sirrine said. “And that can be expensive.”

Bonnie Steinman is land steward of Bell Brewery’s 2-½ acre hops plot near its Galesburg, Mich., brewery. While she devotes most of her skills to growing traditional Michigan cultivars like Chinook, Centennial and Cascade, she said there is interest in newer varieties such as Crystal and Vista, the latter only developed in 2022.

Michigan-grown Chinook is the most in-demand variety due to its unique taste and aromatics. Pacific Northwestern Chinook have more of a gin or pine taste while Michigan’s cones smell like pineapple and stone fruit. The Centennial cultivar was made popular by Bell’s Two Hearted IPA, rated one of America’s best IPAs.

Bell’s is also a member of the Hop Quality Group, a national organization of over 50 craft brewers. According to Steinman, Bell’s has been able to obtain some newer experimental cultivars, such as the mysteriously named Hop Quality Group 003.

“It’s been fun to in the last years to be able to get some experimental varieties in there, something new and different,” Steinman said. “Before we only had access to what was in the public breeding program.”

Weather-related disease took a minor toll on Michigan’s 2026 hops crop. Downy mildew was a problem during a cool, wet spring followed by spider mites in a hot and dry June and July. Steinman said a newer fungal disease called halo blight also appeared in her field and made regular spraying a necessity.

With declining hops acreage and a decrease in beer and alcoholic-beverage consumption during the 2020s, hops growers are looking for new ways to recharge their industry. Even in the West upheaval has been on the rise with multi-generation growers exiting the industry.

Alternatives being discussed in Michigan include new forms of agra-tourism such as farm breweries. Many Michigan fruit producers are experimenting with “You Pick” and family-oriented orchards in hopes of attracting tourists instead of wholesaling their apple, cherry and other fruit crops. Farm breweries receive more push-back from local government officials than cider and cherry mills due to the alcoholic content of their product. That’s an issue state agricultural and tourism officials are hoping to mediate. 

“’You Pick hops would be really challenging,” land steward Steinman admitted, “because those fresh picked flowers have to be used or dried really quickly or they degrade.” As part of their brewery tour however, Bell’s takes visitors outdoors to a specimen plot to show how hops grow, weather permitting, but picking isn’t encouraged.

Still, for growers who have been producing a quality product for the past 10 or 15 years, Sirrine said there is no reason why Michigan brewers should not continue looking to state farmers for their hops.

“If the quality is there and price point is there,” Sirrine said, “there is no reason why brewers shouldn’t head out to the farms and purchase locally.”