✻Forecast FarmClimate · Cultivation · Consequence
Temperate vine ยท Brewing crop

Hops

Humulus lupulus · Cannabaceae

Hops is a cool-temperate climbing crop that grows best in the 15–19°C range with 400–700 mm of rain, cropping over a 150–210-day season. Today it is grown mostly in Germany, Ethiopia and United States.

Optimal temp
15–19 °C
Annual rain
400–700 mm
Max altitude
1,600 m
Cold limit
8°C
Growing cycle
150–210 d
Climate-fit land
37 % world

How it grows

Hops
Photo: Thepcmaniac · CC BY-SA 4.0
๐Ÿ‡ On a climbing vine

Hops grows on a climbing vine, the fruit hanging from stems trained up a support.

What it’s worth to grow

$7.51 / kg at the farm gate
$$$$$
Premium
pricier than 98% of all crops · #1 of 6 beverages & stimulants
Ranked against similar crops — Beverages & stimulants
Hops ◀$7.51/kg
Tobacco$2.94/kg
Coffee$2.45/kg
Robusta Coffee$2.45/kg
Cocoa$2.05/kg
Tea$0.51/kg

Farm-gate value = the price farmers are paid per kilogram (FAOSTAT producer prices, median of 84 positive country-year observations spanning 2018–2024). It tracks how costly and labour-intensive a crop is to grow — almonds and vanilla command a premium; potatoes and cereals are cheap staples.

Where Earth's climate suits hops

Global climatic suitability map for Hops
marginal suitable good excellent unsuitable land
37% of world land

Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).

Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it

Actual production · FAOSTAT 2024
World harvest 0.2M t/yr
Germany46k t
Ethiopia42k t
United States40k t
China8k t
Czechia6k t
Poland3k t
Slovenia2k t
Democratic People's South Korea2k t
Latest reported year. Source: FAO FAOSTAT.
Climatic fit · computed
Where the climate suits it best
Brazil
United States of America
China
Russia
Australia
India
Dem. Rep. Congo
Canada
Ranked by suitable land area (EcoCrop×AgroClim). Climate permits far more than is farmed — economics and history decide the rest.

The climate where it grows

Germany🌧 67% rain · dry
10°C · 894 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
Ethiopia🌧 44% rain · dry
21°C · 1193 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
United States🌧 65% rain · dry
13°C · 1069 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND
China🌧 214% rain · wet
13°C · 1076 mm/yr
JFMAMJJASOND

— mean monthly temperature   ▍ monthly rainfall — averaged over the actual growing areas (the suitable cells) inside each country, so it reflects where the crop is really grown, not the national average. AgroClim 1991–2025 normals. The 🌧 badge is the last 3 months’ rainfall as a percentage of the 1991–2020 CHIRPS normal (through 2025-12) — the current drought/deluge signal.

Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop

Temperatureoptimum 15–19°C · tolerates 8–35°C
-5°C45°C
Annual rainfalloptimum 400–700 mm · tolerates 300–1300 mm
0 mm4500 mm
Soil pHoptimum 5.0–8.0 · tolerates 5.0–8.0
3.09.0

Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±60° · soil pH 5–8.

Growing calendar & hazards

Season

An annual cycle of roughly 150–210 days from sowing to harvest, so it is timed to fall within the frost-free, adequately-wet part of the year for the location.

What threatens the crop
  • Cold & frost. A frost-sensitive crop: temperatures near or below freezing damage or kill it, so it is confined to frost-free seasons and warm climates.
  • Drought. Relatively drought-hardy, but a failed rainy season still cuts yield sharply where irrigation is absent.

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