So there's obviously a split between objective fact and opinion and conjecture, but:
- Outbreaks of powdery mildew in the early 20th century meant it became somewhat infeasible to grow most aromatic and flavoursome hops, leading to research and breeding programmes to produce disease resistant hops with other desired characteristics
- Most of the mildew-resistant hops were wild and from the US and Canada
- Hop breeding and research started in the UK but ended in the 2000s
- Oregon State University has been breeding hops for almost 100 years
- The USDA also has their hop research center in Oregon
- The US is responsible for 40% of hop production, of which over 98% is in Oregon, Washington and Idaho
- Cascade hops, from the USDA research center in Oregon, started the craft beer movement due to the combination of high flavour and disease tolerance
- German hop research started in 1926, but only had any real success after the 1980s
So essentially, the US has just got very lucky when it comes to hop production with good soils and disease resistance, while German beermaking was set back leading other styles to become and remain popular, such as very lightly hopped wheat beers, sour beers where the acidity comes from the fermentation instead of hops, and more recently Belgian style beers that are stronger abv so the stronger alcohol taste substitutes for some of the strength of the hops
There probably are also studies, but they tend to look into mechanisms/variations whereas this is more of a series of coinciding factors which don't really need much research to make sense
You're wondering if a place that grew on monopoly and extortion, with some of the most impoverished, deprived and violent neigborhoods in the country, along with some of the most exclusive and expensive collections of gated mansions, could have serious fundamental issues?
I'd think it's safe to assume that's it's this one...
A quick google search when I was initially fact-checking took me to this reddit post; I'm highly skeptical of both the LAPD and reddit so went for 15 minutes to be "safe" but make of it what you will...