First, some news on what’s happening today, Friday, January 23:

— According to their Facebook page, Half Door Brewing Company in the East Village opens for the first time today at 5 p.m. That will make them the 99th brewery in San Diego County, right on the heels of Wavelength and Kuracali.

— Close to Half Door, Mission Brewery releases their “Don’t Act Like You’re Not Impressed” collaboration with Alpine Beer Co. at 4 p.m. The beer is, of course, an IPA, with 9 hop varieties. Dueling casks of the 7.5% beer — one dry-hopped with Mosaic, the other dry-hopped with Citra — will be tapped at the same time. Alpine will release the beer next Tuesday at their tap room, as will a few lucky SD accounts.

— Today is also the last day of the 59th Annual American Hop Convention, hosted by Hop Growers of America and held at Rancho Bernardo Inn & Stone Brewing Co. There, Douglas MacKinnon (CEO of 47 Hops and former executive director of Hop Growers of America) provided some interesting insight: yields were down in 2014 and prices continue to rise as growers attempt to keep up with the increased demand for hops.

Hop growers last year planted an additional 3,600 acres of hops for a total of 38,011 acres — the most since 39,726 in 2009 — but yields dropped by 4.79 percent because of an unseasonably hot July in the Pacific Northwest, where 98 percent of all commercially-grown hops were harvested.

“In 2015 there’s no margin for error for hops growers,” MacKinnon said. “The hop acreage increased by 10 percent in 2014, but the craft beer industry grew by 20 percent.”

More interesting tidbits: 1) CTZ made up 23 percent of the hops planted, with Cascade second at 16.6 percent. 2) Germany is the world’s top alpha producer, owning 44 percent of the market. The U.S. is second at 39 percent; less than a decade ago these roles were reversed. 3) The top countries from which the U.S. imported hops: Germany, UK, and Australia.

— And for those who like to plan ahead, here’s a short list of events coming up in Febrewary: