There are nearly 100 active craft breweries in Idaho — about four times as many as in 2012. But the industry is facing challenges. Changing tastes, discerning drinkers and rising costs have many local breweries on a financial razor’s edge — and tough times are spilling into Idaho’s hop fields, too.
As Geoff Eiter showed me around Mill 95, the state’s only hop processor Just off highway 95 between Wilder and Parma, the aroma of hops wafted across areas both outside and in.
“We’re just building up supply,” the company’s sales manager said, as we walked into a large football-field-sized cold storage room. “Smells good in here as well,” he said, to which I agreed.
Beer, traditionally, has just four ingredients: malted barley, hops, water and yeast. Idaho is the country's leading producer of malting barley, but most of that is contracted or owned by large multinational brewery operations. In 2016, Idaho became the second-largest hop producer in the country, surpassing Oregon. Hops give beer its bitterness, but also floral, dank or even fruity flavors.
In one building at Mill 95, workers are slicing open 200 pound bales of dried hops from nearby growers for processing into pellets, which get bagged and vacuum-packed with nitrogen.
Harvest time in southern Idaho hop country west of Boise began a couple weeks ago, but it’s not as hectic as in years past.
Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show an 18% decline in hop acreage in 2024, but Idaho was hit especially hard, losing about 31% of its acreage: 8,645 acres harvested in 2023 to 5,970 strung for harvest this year.
“This is also another cold facility,” Eiter says as we walk into another football-field-sized room. This one is warmer, with parked company vehicles and other stored equipment.
“I don’t even know if we’ll be using that this year because of the reduction in acreage, the reduction in what we’re processing this year,” he said.
That room is usually full each fall. Hop acreage in the U.S. shrank prior to the 2023 growing season, too, but a strong yield in last year’s crop meant hop stocks — the stored hops at breweries, hop processors and retailers — remained steady. That’s been a big problem for the hop industry.
Each spring since 2020, the USDA has calculated between 175 and 193 million pounds of hops in storage, the largest reserves ever.
“Hopefully with some more acreage reduction we'll see some of that parity and some of that demand meeting supply and get back into balance,” Eiter said. It’s not always easy to convince brewers to buy older crops, but Eiter said properly stored hops can remain potent for five years.
“I'm optimistic that [balance] will happen. But it may be a few years.”
Just a couple miles away, Michelle Gooding-Badiola of Gooding Farms, says they have about 650 acres of hops this year, down about 40% from peak acreage just a few years ago. Corn, peppers and seed crops are being grown instead — sometimes between the 18-foot tall poles used to support hops.
“You have to figure out what you can grow inside trellis, if you think that it might go back into hops,” she said. “But you also have to be realistic if it's not going to go back.”
Other hop growers have pivoted to onions or potatoes. Infrastructure and labor associated with installing or removing a hop field can be substantial. Gooding-Badiola said the costs of removing the perennial plant can take years to pay off with different crops, but dragging out the pain can be worse.
“Maybe the trellis is old or the ground needs to be rotated. You just need to make that decision and rip the band aid off and move forward.”
Gooding-Badiola is an 8th generation hop grower, and pivoting to grow other crops was new to her and her sister Diane who co-owns the farm. But as a child, she remembers other tough times on the hop farm as the beer industry evolved.
“Beer has changed a lot, and it's going to keep changing. I'll be 35 in a few weeks and I feel like my group in particular has really kind of been all over the map.”
Gallup polling done last year showed younger folks are drinking less. Weekly drinkers under the age of 35 fell from 72 to 62% since 2001. More older adults are drinking according to that same poll. But people are drinking differently, too.
Dodds Hayden is CEO of Hayden Beverage Company, which is among the state's largest beverage distributors. He says their beer division grew 11% on average since 2012, but it wasn’t a straight line and it wasn’t just beer.
“Craft was certainly what gave us our big growth in the 2000-teens, especially around 2014-2015, and then the continuing craft wave and the seltzer wave really gave us our growth around that 2019-2020 time."Dodds Hayden
The pandemic years were well above average growth, Hayden said. But seltzers, ciders and now canned cocktails have been stealing sips from craft beer, in Idaho and nationwide. Bart Watson is chief economist at the Brewer’s Association, craft beer’s national trade organization.
“The industry was only down low-single digits last year. I think that'll be a similar number this year,” Watson said.
Local breweries are watching the trends closely. Mike Francis opened Payette Brewing in 2011.
“There's a lot of choice. I think brand loyalty as a whole is not as big as it once was.”
Francis said the volume of beverages Payette produces has stayed mostly the same in recent years, but it's not all beer.
“Our cocktails are now about, I want to say, 15% of our volume, whereas three years ago it was zero,” he explained.
Payette is responding to the changing market by partnering with Colorado’s Upslope Brewing. Payette’s beer production is planned to be moved to Colorado, and Payette will produce canned cocktails at its Boise location. The two brands will distribute beer and cocktails in both states.
“The market's changing. If you're not changing, you're going to be in a bad spot,” Francis said, noting that every time they’ve made a strategic change over the years, consumers have responded positively.
The Brewer’s Association’s Watson said those kinds of partnerships are still rare but he expects more as brewing operations making less beer than they used to look for ways to keep their tanks full.
Collin Rudeen is CEO and founder of community-owned Boise Brewing. His frustrations go beyond encroachment from trendy drinks like canned cocktails.
“It feels like we're seeing less local support as well. Like when you go to a restaurant, five - eight years ago, there was probably half the handles or more that were local, and now it's more like 30-40% local handles,” he said.
To be fair, Boise Brewing opened its own restaurant last year, which is doing well, Rudeen said, and balancing out now back-to-back years of declining beer sales.
Craft beer drinkers are more educated now, According to Hayden Beverage Company president Andy Mitchell. Consumers are less forgiving of what they don’t like and more discerning as inflation has tightened wallets.
“Maybe it's a time to be a little bit more conservative,” Mitchell said of what he’s telling his brewery partners. “Make really high quality products that are really good value. And when I say value, I don't mean cheap. It's not about price, it's about value for price.”
Rudeen says Boise Brewing wants to do just that, focusing on its core beers and not chasing trends. The company just bought its own canning line, which Rudeen said will help their margins. He hopes discerning drinkers remember that buying local is the only way to ensure local breweries survive.
“We've got eight medals from nationally regarded competitions,” Rudeen said. “So I mean, if you're talking quality and consistency, I can't speak to the industry as a whole, but for us it's there.”
Other breweries have found value in staying small.
Bre Hovley co-owns Barbarian Brewing in Garden City. Ninety-five percent of their beer is sold in their two taproom locations, which she says has allowed them to focus on quality and stay nimble as consumer tastes change.
“We've always been pivoting. But it was hard when we started realizing our barrel aged sour program wasn't … It was shifting, because these are beers that have been sitting here for years, and now we're trying to pivot but not waste or lose product."Bre Hovley
She said the biggest pain point in Barbarian’s sales comes from on-going construction in downtown Boise, near their taproom location.
Bear Island Brewing co-founder and brewer Beth Bechtel credits careful financial planning and hustle for fighting through changing times. Bear Island has no debt, she said, and sales have stayed flat - but she notes having to work harder to keep it that way.
“And my costs have tripled,” she said in a telephone interview. She just collaborated with a fellow brewer in Washington state to create a special beer, but shortly after learned that brewery is closing.
“We have perseverance. It’s disheartening to see friends shut down around you," Bechtel said. “But craft beer is not going away.”
Despite the headwinds, Bechtel and others are firm in their optimism. The Brewer’s Association is helping breweries to diversify their beverage offerings. Breweries and bars are creating more event-driven calendars to attract consumers. Hops continue to evolve with new flavors and varieties that excite brewers.
The changes might be painful for some but it’s a normal, competitive market, said Watson of the Brewer's Association.
“This is not a bubble bursting. Craft brewers aren't going anywhere, but they are going to have to adapt to a new era, rising costs, increasing competition and drinker preferences which are always changing, as they always have.” Watson said.
Consumers have the power to decide, Boise Brewing’s Rudeen said, and he admits there may be more craft beer than available taps and craft beer drinkers right now. But he also wants people to be more aware of how precarious the situation is for many local breweries.
“Customers making choices about where they're buying their beer: is it from an out-of-state brewery? Are they going to be disappointed with the [local] brewing scene after they chose not to buy local beer?”
Back in the hop fields, growers are anticipating another acreage reduction for the 2025 season. Idaho is now less than 500 acres ahead of Oregon as the number two state for hops behind Washington, potentially in danger of losing that calling card.
How and where to reduce acreage is determined each January at the annual hop growers convention. Gooding-Badiola said her family’s farm will continue to push through the changes too.
“You have to be mindful of the acreage and, and the hop stocks and really being smart and strategic as an industry and as a business. There's definitely some new stuff coming though. And I think that's exciting for the industry.”Michelle Gooding-Badiola
The harvest season might be slower this year, but brewers still show up excited to pick up unprocessed fresh hops for special beers they can only make this time of year. Drinkers should start seeing those on taps and store shelves in a week or two.
