If you love hoppy American craft brews, then you probably know there’s an acute shortage of hops. At the Milwaukee Ale House’s Midwinter Beer Fest, I spoke with a brewer who talked about importing hops from Argentina! Now, help is at hand with a most generous offer from Jim Koch of the Boston Beer Company, brewers of the Samuel Adams line of craft brews. Koch has offered up to 20,000 pounds of hops from the 2007 harvest to sell, at the original cost, to needy craft brewers. The application process is detailed on the website, samueladams.com, under the “hop sharing program” icon. It’s a huge act of generosity, to share a key brewing ingredient when it is so scarce.(I’m also grateful to Jim Koch for the kind things he had to say about the cookbook on the cover – thanks again!)