Do Your Pellets Pack Enough Punch? Field Testing from Pizza Port Carlsbad

I dropped by Pizza Port in Carlsbad, California this week to conduct a little impromptu field research with award-winning master brewer Jeff Bagby. The mission: compare Indie Hops’ type 90 pellets with that of the competition.

As reported, we’ve designed a state of the art pellet mill that’s sized and scaled to meet the needs of craft brewers. We’ve increased the average particle size of the grist and lowered the temperature at the pellet die in order to minimize damage to the lupulin glans, home of the rich and aromatic hop oils. We designed the mill with the goal of converting the form of the noble flower without excessively oxidizing the oils.

Pizza Port is near and dear to me. My wife and I have coached our kids for many years in basketball and soccer, respectively, and we wouldn’t think of holding our team “banquet” anywhere but their brewpub in San Clemente. The adults get to drink great craft beer (including outrageously awesome guest taps) and the kids get to run amok with all the root beer they can guzzle

At the 2009 GABF, Jeff won an amazing seven medals and Pizza Port Carlsbad was awarded the Large Brewpub and Large Brewpub Brewer of the Year. Not only does Jeff have the accolades, he’s also an incredibly polite, humble and decent guy who clearly loves his work.

Despite being pulled in about 12 different directions on a typically helter skelter brewing day, Jeff was kind enough to help me conduct a “field experiment” of sorts. I brought with me ice cold samples of our 2009 harvest, Oregon-grown Centennial and Liberty pellets. From Pizza Port’s cold storage, Jeff scooped up a jarful of pellets from the same harvest and variety, both from another supplier.

And thus began the adventure.

Does Size Matter?

The first noticeable difference was the diameter of the respective pellets. Our pellet diameter was ¼ inch; the other’s was 1/8. When we opted for a bigger diameter, our theory was that the less grist exposed to heat during pelleting, the less oxidation of volatile oils. As we’ve come to learn, the bigger the better.

Jeff broke up the pellets. IH’s pellet, he noticed, had a gummier, oilier feel and did not deconstruct into a fine powder. After concentrated finger work, the pellet broke up into small clumps. The other pellet was a tad harder, and the grind was far finer.

The Verdict: “The IH pellet feels stickier, gummier, and fresher. You can feel the oiliness.”

The Solution Dilution

Jeff then weighed out equal amounts of the respective hops and dumped them into pints of hot water. Both broke apart and dispersed at about the same rate. The IH pellets seemed to be more buoyant. They behaved, as Jeff observed, more like leafs from a flower, suspending longer and floating at the top. After a few minutes of settling, the other hop appeared to increase its density at the bottom of the pint a little more rapidly.

The Verdict: “The IH hop tends to resemble a whole flower when it hits the hot water. It’s a bit more buoyant, and there’s less water separation.”

The Exploding Flower Factor

The density of the hop-shake was substantially different. IH’s pellets blossomed into a thicker solution that resembled a creamy-clumpy milkshake. You could literally float a quarter on top of the IH “shake.” The other’s hop solution was thinner.

I had heard that the original sizing of the particles and circumference of the pellet was driven by the notion that a thinner solution would be easier to wash down the drain after the wort was sent to the heat exchanger. Jeff theorized that the thickness of the IH hops would not pose any sort of clogging problem. “We drain our hop residue into the public sewer system, which I’m sure can easily accommodate a coarser hop grind.”

The Verdict: “The Indie Hops pellets were like a thick Texas chili; the other was more like pea soup.”

What about the aroma?

Finally, the aroma. First, a disclosure. Jeff has been a brewer for over 10 years and he has been using The Other Guy’s Centennial pellets for at least that long. He is accustomed its aroma and uses their pellets in his award-winning Shark Bite, a hopped up IPA which is the beer I usually order when I bring my family to Pizza Port up the road in San Clemente. The point: Jeff is both accustomed to this hop and obviously satisfied with it.

Now then. Jeff noted that The Other Guy’s Centennial hop brew exuded a “sharp, skunkier, marijuana aroma.” The IH pellet, brew by comparison, had a “more herbal, spicy, peppery” aroma.

The Verdict: “I was amazed at the difference in aromas. Each had a distinct aroma, both nice, but the [Indie Hops brew] smelled fresher, greener. It’s incredible when you think they are the same variety harvested the same year.”

Pizza Port’s supplier of the hop in question was from Washington, but we don’t know where the hops were grown. Nor do we know exactly who pelleted said hops. The IH hops were grown on Goschie Farms in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. They were pelleted about 2 months ago at our new “patient” pelleting mill in Hubbard, Oregon, located only a few miles up the road from Goschie Farms.

Thanks Jeff, we appreciate your candid feedback. Throughout the session, I nursed a pint of Sharkbite, which featured the Other Guy’s hops. I loved it. It’s hard to imagine improving an already delightful taste, but like my partner Jim says, “The day you stop getting better is the day you start getting worse.” At Indie Hops, we aim to get it right. Brewer feedback is not only essential, it’s fun. It’s even more fun when it validates our theories about the linkage between pellet particle size, pellet surface area to volume , and pellet die temperature.

As another well respected brewer in nearby San Marcos, Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey, recently suggested to me: if less oxidation is the Holy Grail, why not process cigar sized or even hockey puck sized pellets? Good question. We’re on it!

Roger Worthington
5/28/10

Flower to the People: OSU Empowers Hop Sensory Panel

Hood River, Or. Oregon State's Hop Docs wanted feedback from Pacific Northwest brewers on building a new aroma hop and it sounds like they got an earful.

The consensus? Dial down the alpha, jack up the oils, and add something "tropical" to our flavor arsenal beyond the all-pervasive citrus bomb.

In it's mission to breed new aroma hops, Oregon State pulled together a panel of seasoned craft brewers, predominantly from Oregon, to evaluate a series of single hop brews. The format was simple:

• Create a sensory neutral environment .


• Present an experienced panel with six (6) single hop brews, plus a series of dry hopped brews.


• Ask each to fill out a confidential form that best describes the primary hop aroma (viz., floral, fruity, tropical, spicy) and flavor (viz., cirtrus, herbal, grassy, woody, sulfury, cheesy). For each rubric, the panel was asked to further define secondary descriptors, for example, my personal favorites: rose, apricot, mango, anise, sagebrush and not-so-favorites like sweaty, garlicky, leathery and rabbit urine-ish.


• And, finally, after each pair of test brews, open up the panel to a robust but sincere discussion.

The hop sensory panel is the first step in a novel two-part strategy designed by OSU professors Tom Shellhammer (the fermenter/hop chemist) and Shaun Townsend (the geneticist/breeder) in their science-driven quest to breed new aroma hops. Tom and Shaun have been collaborating since January 2010 in their noble mission, pursuant to a $1 million grant from Indie Hops.

The panel was convened in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Pacific Division of the Master Brewers Association (MBAA).

Help Us, Help You

The sensory panels using trained brewers, explained Dr. Shellhammer, is critical in providing clear guidance to Dr. Townsend, who will be selecting hop candidates for crosses in the hope of amplifying known or new desirable characteristics.

"We're looking for consensus," said an optimistic Dr. Townsend, whose mind seemed to be spinning with ideas after the panel. "Early in the breeding process, breeders generally work with little feedback from brewers and chemists. This is an important first step in selecting genotypes that can lead to new cultivars that express the profile sought by brewers. Having the end-product users involved at the front end of the breeding process eliminates a lot of the guesswork and gives me a clear set of goals."

Dr. Shellhammer was equally pleased. "The brewers were excited about being asked to participate in the process. Their candid and honest evaluations will help us narrow down the target characteristics. In the end, we're looking to develop alternatives to the current menu of commercially available hops that will endure the test of time."

The next step is for Dr. Shellhammer to analyze the data for patterns. Over the next few years, Dr. Shellhammer will be conducting at least six sensory panels. He is in early discussions with the San Diego Brewers Guild to hold a second hop sensory panel in early November of 2010.

More Tongues and Noses, More Data, Better Science

Several of the brewer panelists agreed that the research effort was both valuable and long overdue. One brewer told me that it was "just nice to be included. Instead of a few brewers pursuing their own agenda behind a veil of secrecy, it was great for OSU to open up the discussion among a diverse group of brewers. In the end, everyone benefits from innovation." To preserve the objectivity of the effort, and to avoid any hasty conclusions, OSU is keeping confidential the identity of the hop cultivars that were evaluated by the panel.

Another area of research of keen interest to the brewers was the optimal harvest date of aroma hops. As part of the Indie Hops grant, OSU will be conducting a pilot study on the correlation between harvest date and oil content in fresh cones. The brewers did not venture to say which specific oils they were interested in seeing more of. For now, their uncomplicated message is less alpha, more total oils. The panel also raised the concern that the craving for super alphas has led to a proliferation of harshly bitter concoctions that tend to blow up the tongue like a wet sponge.

The road to new and useful cultivars is long, narrow and mostly uphill into a headwind. There are no shortcuts -- no magical bullets -- although advances in molecular marker mapping could one day speed up the process of selecting desirable traits (such as disease resistance, crop yield, and, since we're dreaming here, guava-mango aroma). As Dr. Townsend explains, "There's a reason that Fuggles, Saaz, East Kent Golding, and similar ancestral varieties selected before 1900 are still used today: hop aroma and flavor is an exceedingly complex beast and very difficult to select for."

Planting the Seeds of Future Innovation

Every paradigm shift, every great revolution, has to start somewhere. The prize starts with a vision. The sensory panels will help bring the prize into focus. Amping up oils (after first determining which of the 200 plus hop oils are useful) presents challenges that are orders of magnitude greater than the shade tree mechanic task of boosting the alpha juice.

Put simply, when it comes to tinkering with aroma oils, the current state of the art is somewhere between 1st and 2nd grade. Using conventional breeding methods, we can of course get to the “promised land” in my lifetime – and we will much sooner than that. But to get there repeatedly, in addition to bucket loads of data, ample amounts of sweat and tears and gobs of good luck, to paraphrase Mr. Spicoli from Fast Times : we're going to need to develop a cool set of new tools, pronto.

Indie Hops is naturally proud to sponsor OSU’s aroma hop breeding program and it was especially gratifying to see over a dozen OSU undergraduate “eager Beavers” helping out with the research effort. I also want to thank them for leaving me a six pack of their test brews – sniff, sniff, sip, sip... hmm... spicy with a whisper of anise and a minty fresh finish…

Roger Worthington
5/17/10

Hoptalk with Dr. Al Haunold, Hopmeister, Part X

US Public Aroma Cultivars: Use ‘em or Lose ‘em?

Who's gonna fill their shoes
Who's gonna stand up tall
Who's gonna play the Opry
And the Wabash Cannonball
Who's gonna give their heart and soul
To get to me and you
Lord I wonder, who's gonna fill their shoes?
-- George Jones, ‘Ol No-Show

Why do certain crafties continue to prefer European aroma hops over the US grown surrogates? Do the land race varieties offer superior flavor and aroma? Is it true that the US grown aroma varieties were never intended to replace the nobles?

Did the industrials back in the day task out the USDA to cook up substitutes just in case of a catastrophic European crop failure, or to leverage against price or supply manipulations? Did the industrials simply want substitutes for Hallertauer mf, Saazer and Tettnanger as an insurance policy in case the real McCoy weren’t available?

Or, are the US public cultivars as good or better as the European originals, but some crafties insist on using select German and Czech varieties because of the mystique thing – you know, to truly appreciate beer, you have to wear lederhosen, swill from a tankard the size of a mail box, and polka to that good old oompah beat.

And, finally, if the industrials no longer give a sprig about aroma hops, and crafties are caught up with the romance of German hops, and the trend stateside is towards jealously guarded proprietary hops, leaving the US aroma varieties potentially in the dust, who’s going to fill their shoes? Who’s going to fill your kettle with fresh, unique and locally grown hops? Who’s going to want to follow Daddy’s footsteps and farm hops?

Insurance, Default, Better or Just Different?

I put these big questions to the Hop Oracle, Dr. Al Haunold, inventor or co-inventor of 23 public hop cultivars during his reign as the Head Hopster for the USDA-ARS hop station in Corvallis, Oregon from 1965 to 1996. You want straight answers? You go right to the source.

First, focusing on German and Czech hops, why the flurry of activity back in the day if the Industrials never really used much Liberty, Mt. Hood, Crystal, Santiam, Sterling, etc?

“It’s true Annheuser Busch (AB) and the major brewers didn’t want to be exposed if the European hop supply fell short,” conceded Dr. Al. “That made perfect sense. The three Nobles are good hops, but their alphas were too low, their yields were lousy and they were riddled with disease problems, especially the Hallertauer MF. “

“You fold in the currency fluctuations, radical weather events, the price of shipping, as well as the ravages of too much heat and air exposure in transit, and it made perfect sense for AB and other big brewers with world wide ambitions to want back ups.”

A Global Mega-Brewer Hedging Bets

“AB has always tried to hedge. They bought a big hop farm in Northern Idaho --the Boundary Farm -- and a 40 hectare farm in Huell, Germany, adjacent to the German Hop Research Institute which at the time used that farm to field test promising new cultivars. Even when I was going public with Hallertauer MF ‘analogues’ such as Liberty and Mt. Hood, AB was busy in Germany replacing Hallertauer MF with varieties like Hallertauer Tradition, and Spalter Select, new German aroma cultivars bred to AB’s specifications. It always made sense to AB not to be too tied to one region, or one or two varieties.”

Did AB intend to use Liberty, Mt. Hood and the others as substitutes for imported Hallertauer MF?

Al says yes. “AB was using Mt. Hood in Michelob and the feedback was positive. The farmers out here were expecting massive contracts, but they never came. We thought with Liberty and Mt Hood we had the upper hand, but about then AB started ramping up Spalter and Tradition. Eventually, of course, even those apparently got the shaft, when AB was bought out by InBev.”

“The Industrials always encouraged me to concentrate on aroma hops. But, looking back, I can see the disconnect. The scientists within each company sincerely appreciated what I delivered in terms of disease resistance, higher alpha, and higher crop yields, but the lab guys didn’t make the call on what wound up in the beer recipe,” mused Al.

Fatherland Brewers and Hometown Hops

“At that time, most of the brewmasters were trained in Europe, especially Germany. They had a built in reverence for German hops. For them, using anything but German grown hops would violate the spirit of the Reinheitsgebot, the German Beer Purity Law,” laughed Al. “With the exception of Cascade and of course Willamette, I’m not absolutely sure AB’s brewmasters ever truly intended to use my aroma hops.”

The craft brewers have kept Al’s creations alive – the roster of public cultivars, such as Liberty, Mt. Hood, Crystal, Santiam and Sterling which, for short, I’ll call the Super US Noble Aromas (SUNAs). Unlike the biggies, for whom tradition and consistency have been used as cover for refusing to innovate or take bold chances, the crafties have distinguished themselves as unbound by the shackles of rigid traditionalism.

“I’m grateful that the crafties have kept [the SUNA’s] in the ground and in the coppers, “ Al said, himself Austrian-born, “but outside of the marketing panache I don’t see why the new breed of American brewers would feel the need to use German nobles over what’s grown right here in Oregon and Washington.”

Indeed, this pilgrim has recently traveled to the UK, Belgium and France, where the buzz in the pubs (at least detected by me) was that the American crafties were leading the charge for creative, bigger and better brews.

“In any case, the days of coasting off AB’s hop selections are long gone, “ continued Al. “AB began trending toward All Alpha, All the Time even before InBev bought them out. Since InBev took over, I’ve heard that they’ve been replacing their Tradition and Spalter Select with Herkules, which of course is a super alpha, reportedly ranging from 16 - 20% alpha acid.”

Doing More with Fewer Aromas?

So where does this leave the US aroma hop? In 2008, when the supply spigot went dry and the prices skyrocketed, many US crafties put their trademark thriftiness and resilience to work, and started brewing with fewer aroma hops and more bittering hops.

A few brewers I’ve spoken to offered that instead of using three aroma hops, they were forced by the shortage to use one, but the flavor and aroma didn’t suffer proportionately. Today, even though more aromas are available, they’ve decided to stick with their modified recipes that get more mileage out of their bittering hops.

Do we have a perfect storm? Industrials certainly don’t want much if any of the publicly owned SUNAs. Big crafties continue to trumpet the mystique of quaffing traditional brews flavored with German grown land race hops. And the more frugal small crafties have discovered they can do more with bittering hops.

In the end, price, quality and freshness matter. The freight charges from Germany (and New Zealand) can be substantial. Shipping hops in tightly packed containers for days and days in the hold of giant cargo ships can also exact nasty wear and tear on hops (think of ice cream melting in the sun). The carbon footprint is another factor weighing in favor of SUNAs. And who needs the headache of figuring out the purchasing power of the US dollar against the Euro?

Finally, just as drinking a German beer can invoke a nostalgic experience, the same can be said about quaffing a rich American pale ale using all US grown ingredients. It’s refreshing to look into that frosty mug, inhale the floral aroma, taste the citrusy freshness, and know that you’re helping put a US hop farmer’s kid through college.

Roger Worthington
5/6/10

Indie Hops Celebrates Beer, Bikes, Kids and Good Health!

What a day!

Under gunmetal grey skies with a chill wind blowing off the Pacific Ocean, the action on the clean streets of Dana Point was red hot. We saw and felt it all: the thrill of fierce competition, the joy of cheering on children pedaling with all their heart, the pride of a community rallying to support noble charities, and the grief of honoring the life of Jorge Alvarado, a young racer killed before his prime a few days before by a street-racing motorist in Redlands.

It was a banner day. Over 800 cyclists in 10 categories raced their butts off for over $30,000 in cash and prizes. Even better, at least 300 children, ages 4-15, lined up in multiple age group categories to thrill the crowd and tv audience with their spirit, speed and happy faces. All proceeds from the race will be donated to charity, including the Boys and Girls Club of Capistrano Valley and the 5th Marine Support Group.

Indie Hops is proud to associate with quality beer and a salubrious lifestyle. Salubrious! Check it out: it means "enhancing well-being" or promoting the good life. Cycling is a perfect platform for trumpeting the virtues of a well-hopped malted beverage. In order to maximize what their bodies can put out, cyclists in general are very meticulous about what food and drink they put in -- it's got to be good, real good.

Quality over quantity. I always say that if I'm going to limit my beer intake to one-a-day, it better deliver on all counts. It better have plenty of nutritious malt and anti-oxidant rich hop oils and tannins. It needs to emit an aroma that whispers: relax and enjoy, you've earned it. And of course it needs the right amount of alcohol that can help liberate you from any festering deadweight that may be holding you down.

I want to thank my good friends at Karl Strauss. KS delivered big time. They donated several kegs of Woodie Gold, Amber lager, Pintail Pale Ale and Red Trolley to the beer tent, the proceeds of which will be donated to the 5th Marine Support Group out of Camp Pendleton. Hoo-rah!

And a special shout out to Chris Cramer, the CEO of Karl Strauss. He delivered several cases of muscular Big Barrel Double IPA to the race VIP event and later that night we toasted to their Gold Medal winning Red Trolley over a few bottles of Belgian-Style Anniversary Ale. I broke my one-a-day rule to pieces but it was worth it -- the bewitching brew transported me to the rolling hop fields of Poperinge, Belgium (saving a fortune on air fare!) and that night I slept like a baby.

In June, Indie Hops will be sponsoring the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic in Portland, Oregon. We will be inviting all the local brewers to join in the fun. Our long term vision is to work with Oregon State University in conducting single hop variety brew sensory panels in conjunction with major bike races. Imbibing hopped up beverages in the name of science! Who knew data collection could be so much fun?

A big thanks to the Dana Point Community Cycling Foundation, the City of Dana Point, and all the sponsors and volunteers who made the 4th Annual Indie Hops Dana Point Grand Prix a great day for sport, family and quality beer. I had a blast on the mic and can't wait to do it again.

For an excellent video of the race in all its glory (and savagery), click here.

For stories and video footage of the race:

Cantwell Wins!

The Crash in the Pro Race

Roger Worthington
4/13/10

Here is my interview with Cox Cable. Gnarly!

Hoptalk with Hopmeister Al, Part IX

Aromas? Yes. But Can the Willamette Valley Handle Dual Purpose Heavies Like Centennial, Horizon and Chinook?

If the Willamette Valley is renown for its aroma hops and Yakima Valley for it’s high alpha, where do “dual purpose” hops fit in? Since most mid to high alpha hops hail from Yakima, does that mean they don’t or wouldn’t thrive in Oregon?

First, a bit of background.

“Dual purpose” is a term of art that first emerged in the mid 1990s, about the time that our hopmeister Dr. Al was hanging up his cover-alls and putting away his clipboard. “We never used that term,” recalled Al.

All Purpose Cluster

“Actually, when I first came to the industry in 1965, brewers talked about three major categories of hops. Aromas, high alphas, and general kettle hops. The latter referred mostly to Cluster hops, such as Early Cluster, California Cluster, Yakima Cluster, and Late Cluster. All of these were virtually indistinguishable by quality characteristics. They differed only by their maturity and harvest dates. California Cluster seemed to rank above the others for reasons that I never quite understood.“

The industrial brewers, continued Al, “reluctantly” used Clusters, since they were cheap, easily available, and supplied generic bitterness to their beer. “They boiled the heck out of those Clusters to get every drop of bitterness,” Al laughed, “and then finished it off with an aroma or general kettle hop.”

By the mid 1970s, the emphasis shifted. “General kettle hops” went the way of the Do-Do as the Big Boys simplified the choice between aroma and high alpha. It wasn’t until the 1990s, that a third party re-emerged, this time at the urging of the craft brewers, who demanded the best from both worlds -- hops that could be used for bittering and European style aroma. Thus was born the utility or “dual purpose” hop.

Perle the Pioneer

The closest thing to a “dual purpose” in Al’s hey day was Perle. When grown in Oregon, which is lower in latitude than its home-hopyard in Germany, Perle alpha averaged around 10-11% AA, which back in the day came pretty close to the high water mark for alpha hops.

To qualify as a noble aroma, however, a hop needed to have storagability similar to the classic old-time aromas such as Hallertauer mittelfrueh, Tettnanger or Saazer. A hop’s storagability, explains Al, is an index for measuring the life a hop’s original alpha acid content.

When kept in non-refrigerated space, the land race aroma hop often lost nearly half of their original alphas. Consequently, they were considered to be “poor keepers.” Is that a bad thing? No, says Al. “The loss of original alpha does not mean that the bittering potential had decreased by a comparable amount. Experienced brewers recognized that when alpha acids degraded, the resulting compounds could still offer bittering, even though those new metabolite compounds couldn’t be assayed by a routine alpha analysis.”

Which to me sounds like hops, like wine, can age with grace. Instead of evaporating down to nothing, the hop oils and acids instead can generate new downstream compounds.

Whether a hop is a good, fair or poor keeper is really a message to the grower on the level of TLC that will be required to preserve the best of the good stuff. Why? Because mishandling a hop during or after harvest compounds the natural loss or degradation of alpha acids. How is that measured? It isn’t. To know whether a hop has been handled, you need to know the skill, patience and infrastructure of your grower, as well as your supplier.

Let’s go back full circle to Perle. Perle’s “good” storagability made it too good to hang with the “poor keeper” nobles. In the brewing process, Perle acted more like a high alpha hop than a finicky, thin skinned and easily bruised noble.

Dual Purpose: Good Keepers

Nowadays, in addition to having fair to good storagability, dual purpose hops are generally about twice as high in alpha than nobles, with about twice the total oils. Signature examples are Centennial (11-14% AA, 2.5 oil ml/100g) and Horizon (12-14% AA, 2.0 oil), the latter being another one of Dr. Al’s hop creations (released in 1998 after Al retired).

Newport (15% AA, 2.0 oil) and Chinook (13-15%, 1.8 oil) are two more popular bittering hops with aroma characteristics, both of which Dr. Al struggles to classify as “dual purpose.” “I was approached by Miller Brewing Company in the early 1990s to breed a back up hop to high-alpha Galena. I crossed Magnum, a German super alpha hop with Galena and Hallertauer mittelfrueh parentage, with a male seedling of Brewers Gold, Fuggle and Late Grape parentage. The outcome was Newport.”

Dr. Al did not make the crosses for Centennial, which was originally bred at the USDA facility in Prosser, Washington. Dr. Al did assist in field testing the selection in Oregon.

Green Greatness Denied?

Although Dr. Al had a hand in the creation or testing of these four high alpha/medium aroma cultivars, none of them – Centennial, Chinook, Horizon or Newport, and you can add Mt. Raineer to that list - have flourished commercially in the Willamette Valley.

To be sure, Horizon, Mt. Raineer and Newport have failed to catch on anywhere, whether in Oregon, Idaho or Washington. With respect to Chinook, which ranks as the 5th highest use hop by craft brewers (BA 2009 hop usage survey), the entire US crop of such hops in 2009 was harvested in Washington. As for Centennial, surpassed only by Cascade as the most popular hop in 2009 among crafties, only two Oregon growers harvested Centennial in 2009, both going off radar to do so. Washington brought home nearly the entire supply.

Why is this? Do dual purpose hops grow better in the Yakima Valley? Are the yields in Yakima higher? Are Oregon growers not up the challenge? Do dual purpose hops “keep” or “store” better in the high plains of Eastern Washington?

According to Al, the answer has to do with history, habit and logistics and nothing to do with terroir, or farmer skill, or passion.

“For years the hop merchants have been contracting with Yakima farmers to grow Centennial. A dual-purpose hop like Centennial needs to be harvested, dried, cooled and refrigerated quickly, to avoid combustion and oxidation,” Al instructs soberly. “Most of the cold storage capacity is in Yakima. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to truck tons of volatile hops in non-refrigerated trucks from Oregon when they can be grown a few miles from the storage coolers in Yakima.”

Heat Blows

Hops in general don’t like heat, but higher alpha hops in particular have been known to combust or “self-ignite” when not properly cooled and stored. It’s imperative, stressed Dr. Al, that before stacking bales in a warehouse, the temperature at the core of the bale, as well as the ambient temperature, must be brought down to the 70s.

Hops with high total oils, such as Bullion, Chinook, Newport and Centennial, can generate tremendous heat inside a tightly compressed 200 pound bale. The heat needs to dissipate. It’s critical, reminds Al, that hops be allowed to cool off after drying in a loose stack when removed form the kiln. “If you bale them while they’re hot, and stack them up end on end in a closed room without allowing the heat to dissipate,” Al warns gravely, “they’ll self ignite. They’ll blow.” As in sky high. As in you better have good insurance.

If heat is an enemy, then the Willamette Valley must be a safe harbor. By comparison, the day time ambient temperatures in the Valley around harvest time are six (6) degrees cooler than in Yakima. Impatience is another enemy. Hops must be allowed to cool down for at least 18-24 hours before baling. Hops are dried in the kiln at about 140F (often much higher on especially hot summer days). The optimal temp of a baled hop before storage should hover around 72F. The optimal temp of baled hops in in cold storage drops below freezing.

A hop baled before it’s time and temp is a recipe for blackened, oxidized hops, or worse. Ka-Blam!

What about yields? According to Al, the yields between Oregon and Washington should be compatible. What about alpha acid product? Compatible. What about disease resistance? Per Dr. Al, growing Chinook in Oregon may pose a challenge because of the risk of downy mildew. However, he assures, that risk can be managed by good farming technique and vigilance.

Centennials Busting to Break Out
What about those Oregon-grown Centennials? Are they any good? I haven’t seen any data comparing the chemistry profiles, not that the numbers alone tell the story. We have received feedback from brewers who have used Centennials harvested in 2009 from Goschie Farms (one of our farm partners). In so many words, the consensus sounded something like … err uhh, Damn! This is good sh**!

Here at Indie Hops, we’re satisfied that the Willamette Valley terroir is well suited for both aroma and dual purpose varieties. In the end, it comes down to the talent, skill, patience, experience and passion of the grower. We’ve got two of the finest in Goschie Farms and Coleman Farms.

Cooler, Greener, Richer

In 2010, Indie will be planting “Salmon Safe” Chinook (gotta love that!), Centennial, Horizon, Perle, and a host of aroma hops (e.g., Cascade, Liberty, Mt. Hood, Ultra, Goldings, Santiam, Crystal and Columbia).

If storage is a problem, we can fix that. We’ve got the space. Our patient pelleting mill is now running, which means there’s no need to truck Oregon’s finest beer flower 250 miles to Yakima in the dog days of August. We’ll be able to quickly convert baled cones into fresh, oily, happy pellets within a few days of harvest. We’ve lowered the temperature of the pelleting die below 110 degrees F and our storage cooler is always below freezing.

But more on that later.

Roger Worthington
4/2/10

OSU's Quest for Aroma

Check out OSU's beermeister, Dr. Tom Shellhammer, and hopmeister, Dr. Shaun Townsend, on television! http://www.kval.com/news/local/89487982.html?tab=video The two titans of the Oregon academic beer scene discuss their quest to "add new scents to Oregon suds" (quote courtesy of KVAL's Todd Milbourn, and a good one!). Indie Hops is pleased to provide the seed money for this noble quest.

Tom and Shaun are the perfect spokesmen for the new age of creative breeding and brewing. Goodness these two are lean, fit and poised! They exude the tranquility and clarity of an athlete who's just run 5 miles, or biked 50, cooling down with a refreshing, herbal and tose-tingling craft beer.

By the way, we appreciate the vote of confidence from the TV anchorman, but Indie Hops is brand new to the scene -- we can't yet lay claim to being the biggest hop merchant in Oregon! But our eyes are on the prize.

And finally, a buddy of mine watched this, called me and demanded an explanation. "Do you mean to tell me you donated all that money to invent buttered popcorn flavored beer?!" Breathe easy, buttered popcorn scented hops is not tops on the agenda. And yet, I wonder, could it be done? Try them, try them, then you'll see...

Roger Worthington
3/31/10

Indie Hops Goes Green, Commits to 20 Acres Organic
Organic hops. Should we or shouldn’t we?

The answer is: bring it on.

Here’s why. We believe. We believe organic hops can be grown successfully. They can impart new and different flavors and aromas. They are good for the environment. And consumers will continue to give up more green for pure, green produce.

All it takes is finding the right hop farmer. A farmer with confidence, curiosity, and stamina. A farmer who’s willing to experiment, to learn from failures, to get back on that tractor. A farmer who is “intrigued” by the enormous challenge of doing it the way of her ancestors and getting it right.

We’ve found that farmer. Her name is Gayle Goschie of Goschie Farms. Since 2008, Gayle has been growing a few acres of organic hops on Goschie Farms, a venerated 350 acre hop farm in Silverton, Oregon. She’s been growing organic hops without forward contracts, a testament to her confidence as a grower and her faith that if she grows ‘em, a market will buy ‘em.

Indie Hops is betting on both counts – that Gayle can deliver, and craft brewers will continue to demand US grown organic hops. We’re contracting with Goschie Farms, which obtained its organic certification in 2009, to put in 20 acres of organic hops. To put that number in perspective, figures vary, but last year it’s estimated that 75 acres were planted organic nationwide.

Betting the Organic Farm

It’s a risky bet. The rap on organic hops has been that they’re too expensive, their yields are too low, supplies of particular varieties haven’t been available, their quality is suspect and beer drinkers really don’t care.

A bad rap, yes, but not entiredly deserved, and certainly fixable. Organic hops are more expensive than the inorganically grown kind. First, the acreage must be certified as free of residual synthetic chemicals. Second, without the use of conventional fertilizers, the grower needs to intersperse plants that help the hop vines fix nitrogen from the air and soil.

Third, you better love it, because the labor bill is not cheap. If conventionally grown hops require close attention, organically grown demand the doting, patient, tender loving care of a special needs child. The yards must be hand-weeded. They must inspected weekly if not more often for aphids, spider mites and mildew. As a rule, growing hand-crafted, hands-on organic means doubling your labor costs.

Despite being a time-vampire, Gayle loves it. “I enjoy the learning process. Right now, we’re at the lower end of the learning curve, but we’re getting smarter.” She started planting 2 acres in 2008 and now has 7 acres in production. Her varieties have included Cascade, Fuggles, Willamette, Teamaker (a zero-alpha hop), Centennial and Liberty.

Double Double, Toil and Trouble?

Material costs are also about double for organic. Applications of non-synthetic biocides (e.g. soaps and plant based oils) are more frequent. The agents are “broad spectrum,” meaning they don’t zero in on a specific pest.

“It’s a soft approach,” explained Gayle. “The agents lower the population of all insects, the good ones and bad ones. When we try to combat the aphids, we’re also impacting their predator population -- the good guys, the ladybugs. It’s a broad attack with wide consequences .”

“The trick,” she mused, “is to find that happy balance. We can’t exactly eradicate every single spider mite or soft bodied aphid, nor do we want to, as that would remove the food supply of the lady bugs, which we want. The goal is to achieve and foster a natural balance between the insects, the hops and other plants. You can’t just spray for peace.”

To attract the good insects, as well as provide ground cover between the hop rows, Goschie Farms, is experimenting with integrating her yards with other flowering plants, like Elysium. It’s critical, Gayle says, to make sure the cover crop doesn’t block too much wind, which could create the kind of stagnant air pockets in which downey mildew thrives. At the ground level, she also plants clover, which attracts the good bugs when it flowers. Again, the trick is to diversify the plants so they flower at different times.

Boldly Growing into the Ungrown

In a sense, Gayle and other organic hop growers are boldly going where none has gone before. Unlike mega-crops like corn, wheat and soybeans, there isn’t a network of USDA extension agents standing by eager to assist in the event of an imminent calamity. There’s no manual for organic hop growers. They can’t run down to the feed store for a bucket of Monsanto-made smart bombs. Much of what they do is trial and error. They’re constantly tweaking and re-tweaking until they achieve some approximation of balance. It’s a game that takes time, resilience, and patience.

For example, Goschie Farms, which specializes in aroma hop varieties, has also tapped into the power of aroma to control pests. Goschie has found success in using garlic and spearmint oils as natural weapons to limit unwanted pests by attracting their “good” predators.

The thinking goes like this: if using crushed garlic can help control aphids in rose gardens by attracting aphid-loving ladybugs, why couldn’t it work with hops? Similarly, since spearmint oil has been used in vineyards to control spider mites by attracting predators like the minute pirate bug, why couldn’t it be used in hopfields? In both cases, the idea, converted to practice, has paid out small but important dividends.

Nature Adores Balance

“Finding a balance intrigues me,” enthused Gayle, who’s clearly fond of the word “intrigue” . “That part, the learning part, that “Eureka” moment, when it all comes together, excites me. It has also made me a better farmer all around,” citing the fact that last year, in 2009, almost one-third of her 350 acres of conventionally grown hops were free of spider mite infestations.

“What I learn from growing organically,” said Gayle, “I can also apply to my conventional fields.” Goschie Farms has long been a leader in growing hops in an environmentally respectful manner. Goschie was the first hop farm to be certified as “Salmon-Safe,” an endorsement which means it uses sustainable agricultural practices which limit the kind of unhealthy water run-off that imperils native salmon. As with its organic certification (from Oregon Tilth), Gayle sought the Salmon Safe approval not for economic advantage but because it was the right thing to do.

Growing organically is, to be frank, no bed of roses. Despite big cash, time and brain power investments, the yield from organic hops for now continues to be unacceptably low. As a general rule, organic yields are about one-half the size of inorganic hops. Gayle is convinced that over time, as farmers build on their skills, develop better collaboration networks, and learn more about how to prime the hop’s nitrogen fixation pump, organic hop plants will get stronger and more vigorous. When they do, their yields will bulk upwards, as well.

As for quality, the literature is virtually blank on any reported differences in the oil or acid composition of organic varieties. In the Garden of Eden, before the onset of synthetic pesticides, the fragrances and flavors emitted from a plant’s oils served to repel certain insects, fungi and diseases. Over time, as an organic hop ecosystem finds its equilibrium, one wonders what the future will bring. What oils will nature select for their survival value? What flavors and aromas will be associated with hearty survivors? We shall see.

Have Mission, Will Prevail

Just as growing big, bold, plump hop cones presents a challenge for the farmer, finding a market for organic hops also has its challenges. Under the current USDA rules on organic products, a brewer can market its beer as USDA certified organic even though the hops used are inorganic. The rule (section 205.606) has recently been challenged by the American Organic Hop Grower Association , which consists five growers. The group argues that since 2007, when hops were exempted from the USDA organic rules, there have been tremendous strides in the availability, quality and quantity of organic hops. Anheuser-Busch, which originally supported the hops exemption, has now written a letter advocating the removal of hops from the exemption list.

The group makes the point that under the current regulatory scheme hop farmers are discouraged from growing organically since brewers can use inorganic hops but still legally market their beers as organic. They say the rules both stymie the farmers and foster dishonesty in the marketplace, as the only impediment to taking advantage of the loophole is a guilty conscience.

Our decision to contract with Goschie Farms to grow 20 acres of organic Cascade and Centennial was made long before the AOHGA filed its petition to strike humulus lupulin from the exemption list. Our decision had nothing to do with legal loopholes and everything to do with advancing progress. We believe that Goschie Farms has the stuff and the spirit to set the standard worldwide for growing the highest quality of organic hops.

It won’t be easy, but nothing that lasts is. There will be obstacles. Can we improve the yields in the next few years? Can we meet the needs of brewers for particular, perhaps unique, varieties in their beer recipes? Can we help expand the handful of brewers who regularly use bona fide organic hops in their bottled brews? Can we figure out how to reduce costs so organic hops can be priced competitively with their inorganic sisters?

Yes, we can.

Like Gayle, here at Indie Hops, we are “intrigued.” We like the challenge. We like how it feels, even if it’s not an instant home run in the marketplace. We like being on the front end of a movement to, ironically enough, do it the way of our forefathers. As Gayle says, “This is a labor of love. In 1905, my grandfather, Carl Goschie, started hop farming. He grew hops without a lot of artificial compounds. He’d be happy to know that over 100 years later we were closing the circle – growing good hops and continuing to respect the land. “

Roger Worthington
3/26/10

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Indie Hops Organic Pellets Available Fall 2012
We are planting 20 acres of organic Cascade and Centennial hops in 2010 at Goschie Farms. We will be harvesting crops in 2012 and 2013. Call for more details. Go Big Green!

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