not the hops!!!

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Beer drinkers beware: 4 percent of U.S. hops crop burns

POSTED: 9:53 a.m. EDT, October 3, 2006

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YAKIMA, Washington (AP) -- Federal investigators were set Tuesday to begin an

investigation into a fire that ruined about 4 percent of America's yield of

hops, used as flavoring in the brewing of beer and ale.

The fire started shortly before noon Monday in a 40,000-square-foot

(3,600-square-meter) warehouse operated by S.S. Steiner Inc., one of the four

largest hop buyers in the Yakima Valley of central Washington. By mid-afternoon

flames engulfed most of the building, sending up plumes of smoke and a pungent

aroma.

Municipal fire crews, aided by regional firefighters, ripped away metal siding

to shoot water directly onto the hops.

Based on an industry official's estimate of the quantity of hops in the

warehouse, the loss could amount to $3.5 million to $4 million. The impact on

brewers and beer prices was unclear early Tuesday.

Company President Paul Signorotti would not comment.

The United States produces 24 percent of the world's hops, and about

three-fourths of the U.S. crop comes from the Yakima Valley. Hops were a $77

million crop in Washington state in 2004. More than 40 families grow hops in the

valley, which is dotted with orchards, vineyards and farms.

Fires have long been an expensive danger at hop warehouses, largely because of

the potential for spontaneous combustion from heat buildup in bales of

resin-loaded varieties.

" That's just a possibility that we'll look at, " East Valley Deputy Chief Mike

Riel told the Yakima Herald-Republic, " but it is very high on the list. "

No one was in the warehouse when the fire started, Riel said.

With the fire under control Monday night, authorities told the newspaper an

investigation into the cause would be led by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco

and Firearms.

Steiner is part of the Steiner Group of Germany, one of the largest

international hop growing, trading and processing companies in the world. The

Yakima branch manages Steiner's North American buying and processing, according

to the company Web site.

Besides being one of the largest growers in the valley, Steiner is one of three

large merchants that buy from other growers in the area. The others are John I.

Haas Inc., the grower-owned cooperative Yakima Chief and Hop Union, which

specializes in sales to craft brewers.

The fire destroyed or ruined about 10,000 bales, each weighing about 200 pounds

(90 kilograms) and likely worth $1.75 to $2 a pound, Ann George, administrator

of the Washington Hops Commission in nearby Moxee, told the Herald-Republic.

Seventeen varieties of hops are grown in the United States, including aroma

varieties which are added for flavor or fragrance and the bitter alpha

varieties.

 

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances,

there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in

such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest

we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

William O. Douglas