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Hoppiness Is Happiness? Under-fertilized Hop Treatments and Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Beer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2018

Gnel Gabrielyan Open the ORCID record for Gnel Gabrielyan [Opens in a new window] ,
Thomas L. Marsh ,
Jill J. McCluskey  and
Carolyn F. Ross
Gnel Gabrielyan*
Affiliation:
Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, College of Business, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850
Thomas L. Marsh
Affiliation:
School of Economic Sciences, Hulbert Hall, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164; email: tl_marsh@wsu.edu.
Jill J. McCluskey
Affiliation:
School of Economic Sciences, Hulbert Hall, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164; email: mccluskey@wsu.edu.
Carolyn F. Ross
Affiliation:
School of Food Science, Food Science & Human Nutrition Building, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164; email: cfross@wsu.edu.
*
email: gg352@cornell.edu (corresponding author).
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Abstract

The market structure and recipes for beer has been rapidly changing with craft beers attracting more consumers. Perceived hops quality (hoppiness) is one of the main attributes that microbrewers alter to differentiate their products to satisfy consumers’ changing tastes and preferences. We hypothesize that, in addition to manipulating beer-processing conditions, the conditions under which the hops are grown may also influence the final sensory properties of the beer. Using hops from a field experiment coupled with sensory attributes and sociodemographic characteristics from a contingent valuation survey, we analyzed the impact of under-fertilized hop treatments during the growing season on consumers’ willingness to pay for beer. The results indicate that uninformed consumers in a blind tasting could identify the differences in beer made from hops across the fertilization treatments and, thus, implying that all else equal sufficient fertilizer is required to achieve satisfactory hoppiness for which consumers are willing to pay. (JEL Classifications: C91, D12, L66, Q11)

Keywords

beerhoppinesswillingness to payfertilizer
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Wine Economics , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , May 2018 , pp. 160 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © American Association of Wine Economists 2018 

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