[proxy_user]

Hops will grow nearly anywhere:

http://countryfolks.com/hops-in-connecticut/

[Steve_Seattle]

With this IPA fad, they’ve been overhopping beer for the past five years or so. A shortage of hops will hopefully put an end to that.

[Calvin Locke]

Really? I thought hops was finicky vine. Maybe "just the good stuff", such as an equivalent arabica bush? Or perhaps the care and knowing when to harvest the stuff?

One of the shows on Medieval England said that the local beer at the time was hopless, with hops eventually being imported from the Netherlands, iirc.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

It is a weed after all.

Plus, it's probably hogwash being spewed as an excuse to raise prices on the products. It has been done before...and not all that long ago.