The Lupulin Exchange has been a busy place lately - we have so much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Eve. Hundreds of breweries have now sold over twenty thousand pounds of hops to other breweries on The Exchange. Brewers have been able to source hops they desperately needed, while helping other brewers balance out long inventories and contracts. This is our goal and it’s happening faster than we expected!
You might have noticed some changes to the site in the last few weeks. Shane and Darren are busy making improvements to our process and the user experience. The list of what’s in the pipeline is long, but here are some things that are on the immediate horizon.
- For Hops Listed at a Broker: We’re changing the way Purchase Orders are delivered to brokers. Soon, all POs will be sent to the seller instead of the broker. This will replace our current authorization process and give the seller an opportunity to double check the PO to catch any errors they’ve made in the listing before the PO is sent to a broker. Starting Nov 26th, you might not see your broker listed temporarily while open orders are closed out and we phase in this new system. There will be no changes to hops listed at a brewery.
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After a month of careful debate and plenty of feedback from fellow brewers, brokers, growers, wives, and The Supreme Court, we’ve made some decisions:
The Exchange will soon open to independent growers. Growers will be able to post hops for sale under their own brand names. Growers: let us know if you need more options for package sizes, etc. - We’ve also solicited opinions on resellers from both brokers and brewers. All of the major hop brokers are now making efforts to stiff-arm resellers. They all think speculators are bad for brewers and so do we. Our updated Terms of Use prohibits resellers from using The Exchange. If you’re in this to buy low and sell high, you’re in the wrong industry. Buyers: if you don’t plan to turn these hops into commercial beer, you’re in the wrong place. The Lupulin Exchange was built to help solve problems that brewers face in the hop market. The consensus is that speculators and re-packers are part of the problem, not the solution.
You can subscribe to this blog if you’d like to be notified once these changes are complete (in the top right of this page). In the meantime, please feel free to comment below or Facebook and Twitter.
Now go eat some turkey! The Lupulin Exchange team wishes you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving.