FOREWORD

The Hopsteiner group is pleased to publish the 2004 edition of Guidelines for Hop Buying, which reflects the latest available data. Our report is based upon the statistics we have acquired for the international hop and beer markets. We trust that the information incorporated in the following pages will prove helpful for your hop-buying decisions.

Once again this year, one of the essential criteria for our calculations is the determination of the average addition of alpha acids in the brewhouse. We base our estimates upon the assumption that hop usage has declined yet again. We currently estimate alpha acid usage in 2004 at 4.8 grams per hl of beer, with a further reduction down to 4.7 grams in 2005. This has also been partly caused by the growing usage of pre-isomerized hop products which offer substantial hop yield improvements to the brewer.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions pertaining to the information in this report.

October 2004
S. S. Steiner, Inc.
Simon H. Steiner, Hopfen, GmbH
Steiner Hops Limited