Hopportunity Knocks.

I hope you like pictures.

School had barely started for our class of brewers before we all crammed into a couple of vans and headed off on a 14 hour journey to Yakima for our first field trip. This may seem like a strange thing to do but I assure you there was good reason. You see, Yakima is one of the most important hop growing regions in the entire world. Seriously. About 40% of all the hops grown in the world are in the USA and about 80% of those are grown around Yakima, WA, and we were going to be there for the harvest!

14 hours crammed into a little van with people I hardly know didn't sound like a recipe for awesome. Luckily, we got to break up the trip with a very pleasant tour by the very pleasant folks at the Fernie Brewing Company. http://www.ferniebrewing.com Everyone talked to us and treated us incredibly well, a theme that was to be repeated the entire trip as it turned out. Also, First Trax Brown Ale.

After a couple of delicious samples and stimulating conversations we headed out once more. I knew we had arrived even though I could not see a single farm in the darkness because the familiar and intoxicating aroma of hops filled the air. Ahh, Yakima.

We started off at a great place called Hopunion- http://www.hopunion.com They explained to us how their collective worked to give the local hop farmers a bigger voice and ensure that the brewers got exactly what they needed. They showed us their giant machine for turning whole hops into the little pellets I have been home brewing with for years. However, the highlight was the moment our guide opened the large door to their cold storage warehouse. I swear I could hear the smell of the hops washing over me and it was angelic. The bales of hops towered above us and the floral, citrus smell of the hops was almost (but not quite) cloyingly sweet. We didn’t need to turn on any lights in there because the whole place was lit up with grinning faces like you would expect to see on Christmas morning.

If only computer monitors had a "scratch and sniff" option!

Our next stop took us a few miles down the road to one of the larger hop farms in the area. How big was it? Well, New Zealand as a nation plants about 800 acres of hops a year. This farm had about 900 acres. Not too shabby. They very graciously took us through the entire operation of harvesting and processing hops. The hop bines grow up strings made of coconut fibre and are harvested by cutting the whole string off the support. They are taken by truck to the processing facility where a worker lifts and hooks each 100lb length of bine onto a chain that takes it to the machine that strips the hop cones. This sort of medieval chain flail type thing takes most of the leaves and hop cones off the bine which is then mulched and returned to the field as fertilizer. Meanwhile the leaves are separated from the cones by a series of angled conveyors which basically roll the cones away onto another conveyer headed for the kiln.

The hop cones and leaves are stripped...

...and separated before kilning.

I had to stitch five photos together to show you the kiln's hop bed in all its glory!

This gorgeous pile of cones is heated from below in a giant bed about 3 feet deep to dry out. After the drying they are allowed to cool before being packaged into large 200lb bales. The whole process is loud, scary, dusty, hot, and mighty impressive. Plus, have I mentioned the smell? Bliss.

I know my explanation and the pictures can be a touch confusing so here is a short video I edited together. Yes I did film it with my phone. How did you know?

After this tour we stopped at Bale Breaker Brewing Company http://balebreaker.com/index.html located right on the family farm. How is that for direct from the source? The owners gave us a wonderful tour and considering the brewery is less than a year old, their beverages were top notch. Don't believe me? Try their Topcutter IPA.

Our second day saw us visit Puterbaugh farms. http://www.hopsdirect.com This place was even larger than the last with over 1,100 acres of hops. They even have their own pelletizer so they are able to take hops from the field to finished products for the end user right on site. They treated us like kings by offering free swag, answering questions, showing us around and introducing us to Belma – one of the newest additions to the hop family. This new hop breed just magically showed up on the farm one day with its delicious and unique aromas such as strawberry.

Hops at Puterbaugh farms

Too soon we left the delightful aroma of hops behind but not without one last stop at Kootenai River Brewing Company. http://kootenairiverbrewingcompany.webs.com The owner was very accommodating and even gave us a sneak peek (or taste) of their latest brew aged in a whiskey barrel from Dry Fly Distilling. If you are anywhere near Bonners Ferry this winter you had best stop in for a sample of that one.

So that's hops. Maybe next time I'll introduce you to some maltsters.

Until then, Cheers!