Yakima Chief has one of the world's largest and most advanced pelleting facilities with a current capacity of over 150,000 pounds per day. It utilizes one of the largest mixers of any commercial facility, resulting in greater uniformity of product from carton to carton. The pelleting of hops at YCI is performed under strictly controlled conditions. Our pellet processing facility is inspected annually by state regulatory authorities for conformance to strict food safety and sanitation regulations.

Hops are transported from cold storage to the pelleting facility on demand to avoid exposure to the elements and keep oxidative losses to a minimum. YCI assigns lots to every customer order based upon the size of the lot and the best choice of pure variety hop lots as required to provide a homogeneous lot of the final product. This is true whether the pellets are to be used directly in the brewer's kettle as Type 90 pellets or converted to hop extract.

Our pelleting process uses high purity liquid nitrogen in the cooling of the die head when the pellet is formed. This allows high-speed production of uniform, dense pellets with minimal loss of alpha acid. Faster and cooler production of pellets preserves the vital components of the hops and assures a consistent product for the brewer. The pellets have a clean hop aroma and withstand shipping with minimal breakage.

Clumping of pellets is also reduced, assuring free flowing pellets out of the package and giving the brewer more control. Reduced brewer handling allows for more precise portioning to save the brewer time and money.

State-of-the-art mixing and filtration systems feature near infrared technology in the pelleting process. Yakima Chief can produce large lots of consistent bitterness - this save the brewer time by minimizing the minor adjustments usually required during the brewing process.

The cooled pellets are packaged in foil vacuum- sealed pellet packaging - the best in the industry. Nitrogen flush vacuum sealing maintains essential hop components. Flexibility of sizes minimizes handling and saves time in the formulation process. Brewers have the option of hardpack or softpack ranging in size from 5kg to 110kg. Once pelleted and sealed the hops are transported back to cold storage to await shipment. Once again, oxidative losses are reduced to the absolute minimum.

During processing, the alpha-acid content of process samples is routinely checked for conformance to customer specifications. To insure brewer satisfaction, Yakima Chief tests assembled lots for customer orders by EBC method prior to shipping. This assures that our Certificate of Analysis portrays product lot characteristics accurately. We will be happy to share our sampling procedures with you upon request. We have specific protocols defined for each product and welcome your inquiry.