Columbia Debut Delayed as Meridian Steals the Show

The Story of the Discovery of a New Oregon Hop

Oh dear.

Remember Columbia? The “sexy” sister to Willamette unceremoniously banished years ago to the basement of hop history? Remember how we gleefully announced that we had resurrected this beauty? That we’d be the first to grow it commercially? And that our craft friends couldn’t wait to set her free?

Separated at Birth, Indeed
We originally reported that the hop on the left
was "Columbia" and the one on the right
was it's sister, Willamette. Turns out our
"Columbia" was actually a new plant,
which we've coronated as "Meridian

Well, we grew her, and dried, baled, and pelleted her, but a funny thing happened on Columbia’s walk down the red carpet. Since nobody had ever “dated” her before, we didn’t quite know what to expect. We suspected she’d be a beauty, with a slightly higher alpha than her floral sister, but this Gal quite simply dazzled us beyond our wildest dreams.

One by one we brought in some of the finest snouts in the land to give her a rub and sniff. It was fun to watch. We’d fill a table with several fresh varieties and our guest would do the dance, concentrating hard, earnestly associating the aroma with descriptors. Without exception, they’d take a whiff of the unlabeled “Columbia” pile and stop in their tracks, arrested, if you will, by the stunning uniqueness. We began hearing words like “Meyer lemon pie.” “Fruit punch.” “Unique.” And “wow!”

The evidence began piling up. When we harvested her, the drying room at Goschie Farms bloomed with a strikingly unique and pleasant aroma. We suspected she’d be different than Willamette, but this different? Something was …. off, in a good way.
We sent her off for a chemistry profile. More and more brewers who sniffed her were amazed at her uniquely fruity aroma. Could it be? We waited. The results came back. Per the literature, we expected Columbia’s alpha-beta ratio to come in at 2:1. But, at 1:1.5, this spunky girl flipped the ratio. She wasn’t just a shade different, she was looking like a brand spanking new leaf!

What's in a Name?
That which we call a Columbia
by any other name, say,
hmmm, "Meridian," would smell
as sweet. With apologies to Bill Shakespeare.

We ran more chemistry. It became evident that she was not Columbia. But what was she? The only pedigree that came close was Glacier. But a defining characteristic for Glacier is her super low cohumulone, at 12%. Compare that to the mystery girl’s CoH, at 45%. They didn’t match.

We ran through all the databases, looking for a match. The conclusion was inescapable: nothing matched. We had found a new hop, a strikingly beautiful new hop that packed a powerfully unique new aroma. We called our customers who had ordered Columbia and with a mixture of excitement and trepidation explained that what we thought was Columbia wasn’t Columbia. Thankfully, our customers shared our enthusiasm for this new find, and offered congratulations.

Suddenly, we had a million things to do. We had printed up a bunch of t-shirts that showcased the debut of Columbia, the famously forgotten Sister. We had to hold on to those. We had to delay putting in new acreage until we could learn more about the agronomy and disease/pest resistance of the new plant.

And we had to give our mystery girl a name. That wasn’t hard – we discovered the plant on Goschie Farms within a few meters of a country road named “Meridian. “ Meridian – a navigational term, an imaginary circle on the planet passing through the North and South poles, but also used in conversation to mean the “zenith” or “summit.” Hmm. We like that. Wherever you are, when you’re drinking a beer hopped with Meridian, you’re approaching the zenith or summit of flavor.

Back to the Basement,
Dear Sweet Hidden Sister
The good news is that when Columbia finally debuts,
we've got a boatload of commemorative t-shirts ready to roll!

As of this writing, the brewer feedback continues to pour in. One brewer has used it in a single hop lager beer, which he described as “clean” and “crisp” with a “refreshing sweet lemon character.” Meridian has also raised eyebrows and oxytocin injections (Ok, made that up) in a wide range of ales, from pales to dark roasted malt “winter seasonals.” It’s reported to play well with Belgian yeast and has a way of amplifying the zesty zing of weissbiers.

We’re excited over here, about excited as anyone should be allowed to get over the discovery of a “sexy” new hop plant. We want to thank Gayle Goschie for her well-intentioned but fortuitous “mistake,” Dr. Shaun Townsend who helped us determine that “Columbia” wasn’t Columbia, and all of our friends in the craft brew world who basically said we don’t care what you call it, we just want more of it!

At the same time, on a somber note, we’re mindful that poor Columbia, as mighty and strong and beautiful as we know she is, will have to wait another few years for her big night in the spotlight.

RGW
3/22/12

In Pursuit of Columbia

Dan Kopman of Schlafly Beer in St. Louis

was our first customer to order Columbia. Shown here,

on the left, with Gayle Goschie, R. Worthington and

Matt Sage (left to right). Goschie Farms, July 2011.

Harvest Time! Weird Scenes Inside the Green Gold Mine.
Hoppy Readers: Please join me on a quick tour of Goschie Farms during the hop harvest in late August, 2010.


Whole lotta shaking going on! From the back of the truck workers fasten the hop heavy bines to a conveyor and then sent through a gauntlet of thrashers which strip the cones from the bines, sidearms and stems. The action, sights and sounds are both deafening and invigorating. More twists, turns, drops, jolts and jumps than the corkscrew coaster at Six Flags.

Matt Sage, above, embracing Gayle’s Green Bounty. Normally Matt’s going 100mph with his hair on fire. I’ve never seen him this cool and collected. Must be the opium in those Willamette hops. From the picking room, the hops are conveyored over to the kiln and drying rooms.

Here the green gold falls from the belt like fruit from a tree onto the drying room floors. Goschie Farms has six hot air blowers which heat the raw cones up to about 140 degrees F just long enough to leave about 10% of the cone’s original moisture.

Check out the sea of green above. The drying room is in a coverted barn that’s been the heart and soul of Goschie Farms for decades. The picture doesn’t show it, but the room is very, very humid. Poke your head in there and your glasses instantly fog up.


Handcrafted hops. We like to talk about our hops are grown with Tender Loving Care and processed with attention to quality over quantity. Here’s a worker who meticulously culls from the hop piles before drying any and all leafs, branches or other debris. A labor of love.

Again, here’s the normally peripatetic but now fully sedated Matt in full hop zen mode. “If you find yourself floating in a sea of green, close your eyes , relax your shoulders, and let your mind open up. You can hear the hops chanting: brew me, brew me, brew me,” says Matt.


Glory be to Gayle in all her hop glory. Gayle Goschie, second from left, flanked by intrepid hop travelers, from left to right, Dan Kopman (Schlafly), Yours Soberly, and that ball of fire, Matt Sage, at the base of Mount Willamette.

Fruits of Labor. Here’s the end result: densely packed 200 lb bales of hops. Bales are then trucked about 3 miles down a flower strewn farm road to Indie Hops clean, green pellet mill, where Captain Jim Solberg awaits in the catbird of his forklift, ready to offload the bounty into our cooler, where the oily cones are frozen down to 26F. A few days later they’re converted into big fat oily pellets before being packaged in oxygen purged foils and sent right back into the cooler awaiting delivery to your kettle.

Roger Worthington
9/5/10

Sen. Wyden: Cut taxes, build more breweries, create more jobs, buy more beer (and hops!)

Eugene, OR. Against the backdrop of the Ninkasi brewery in the midst of a major upgrade, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) made the case today that passing a federal bill that will slash taxes for small brewers will help crafties plow their savings back into creating more jobs.

“In a state that’s hurting, “ said Senator Wyden, “ the craft brewing industry is a magnet for investment and new jobs.” Flanked by brewers, hop and barley growers, OSU researchers and equipment manufacturers, Senator Wyden proudly noted that craft brewing is “one of Oregon’s core industries,” adding $2.33 billion to the state’s economy.

“A lower tax will open the door for new breweries to start up – breweries that will buy more hops and barley, build more breweries and hire more people,” said Sen. Wyden. Along with Sen. John Kerry, Sen Wyden has proposed a bill that will lower taxes on the first 60,000 barrels, which he said would provide the nation’s 1500 small brewers with an additional $44 million to invest in facilities and create jobs.

Indie Hops was pleased to be invited to speak as Oregon’s first home-grown hops merchant. My partner Jim Solberg , clad for the first time in recent memory in a pair of sensible black wingtip knock-offs (instead of his signature Berkenshire knock-offs), spoke of Indie Hops’ commitment to jobs.

“We invested over $2 million in a pellet mill, employing ironworkers, electricians, technicians and all sorts of specialists,” Solberg said. “We funded a first-ever aroma hops research program at Oregon State. And we’re contracting with local farmers to grow the premium hop varieties that craft brewers love.”

Earlier, Gayle Goschie of Goschie Farms, one of the heritage hop farmers with whom IH contracts, spoke of a decrease in acreage from over 6,100 acres in 2009 to around 5,100 acres in 2010, largely because the decision by Anheuser/InBev to cut its purchase of Willamette hops. “We’d like to make up for that deficit, and then some, by expanding our craft brewer customer base, putting in more hop acreage, funding more research and expanding our payroll and facilities, “ said Jim.

Oregon is the nation’s second largest producer of craft beer, behind our neighbor California, which of course has about 10 times the population. Oregon ‘s 78 breweries employ 4,700 full and part-time employees in 106 brewing facilities in 47 cities. Cool numbers.

Special thanks to Jamie Floyd, owner of Ninkasi, who hosted the press conference. Ninkasi’s phenomenal growth in a few short years in a local market stacked with craft cognoscenti sends a strong message that the consumer base is expanding commensurate with the escalating quality of craft beer nationwide. We haven’t even scratched the surface!

Oregonians are going nuts for craft. Eugene, with a population of about 150,000, sports six (6) craft breweries. Bend, where I live part time, with a much smaller population of around 80,000, boasts a whopping eight breweries. And we’re not done. The rumor is two, maybe three more breweries, are slated to join the fun in Bend’s (much ballyhooed but far from omnipresent) sun.

Roger Worthington
7/6/2010