Next to unpredictable losses from bad weather, premeditated reductions in acreage aggravated the 2010 barley supply in Europe. The hop inventories continued to increase.

The results of the 2010 BA Hop Usage Survey show greater stability, but little lessening of many of the factors that make our hop-using lives difficult and unpredictable.

A growing number of small farmers—their numbers stretch from southern California to New England—are trying to raise hops as a cash crop, and craft brewers are benefiting.

If there is a tide in the affairs of men, its currents have made 2010 the year in which craft brewers packaging their brews in cans appears to have moved from oddity to trend.

The Great American Beer Festival keeps on getting bigger, but it’s getting smaller as well, in the sense of the small craft breweries who are gaining more and more attention.