Oh No! A Cotton shortage too.

[jefrey3]

The textile industry is researching the use of hop fibers to as a replacement for cotton & fiberglass. Luckily they want the bines & not the cones.

American hop growers anticipate an additional 5000 to 7000 acres of hops to be planted this year. 1500 to 2500 pounds of hops are produced per acre. Most of the new acreage is expected to be planted with high alpha varieties.

[Davin]

Actually that could be good news. Lets assume that they can extract the cones for the brewing industry and then use the rest for the fiber, hops becomes a much more profitable crop for the growers.

[BM1]

Yeah,and since lots of breweries buy hops based on alpha acid content,maybe the hops will go farther,too.Might be more flavor/aroma hops available to home brewers !

[john mills]

It's good to think positive about the textile industry helping the hop situation, but to be a bubble buster and think negative, hops are related to hemp, and industrial hemp didn't contain anything else helpful to the hippie than fiber to clothe his stinky body. If hops were grown for textiles, it just will probably factor that the hops good for textile would only be the male plants that don't produce cones. But I can only hope like the rest, that the cones are only a waste product of the textile industry, and I will be in line to "help" them dispose of such things.