American Hop Convention

Leaving the snow and low winter temperatures behind, hop growers from across the Pacific Northwest states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho traveled across the country to the sunshine of Tampa, Florida for the 66th Annual American Hop Convention hosted by Hop Growers of America. The convention’s theme of “Growing Resiliency” resonates in this community with the challenges that the country and the agricultural industry has faced in the last two years. It reflects the ways they have had to keep moving forward, despite the constant obstacles growers face each harvest season, and the need to innovate in a changing world. 

The convention is a summit to provide education and resources from industry experts to the hop farming community.

Maggie Elliott, USA Hops Science & Communications Director shared, “the American Hop Convention serves as a key space for U.S. growers to deliberate challenges facing the industry and learn of novel advancements – equipping producers with the connections and resources to continue to lead resilient operations.”

Grower & Brewery Collaborations Beers

Farmers IPA – Green Bench Brewing & Gooding Farms

In celebration of the Hop Growers Convention and connecting family farms to brewers, we teamed up with Coppertail Brewing and Gooding Farms to brew the second edition of Coppertail's Farmer IPA series. The hazy IPA was brewed with Gooding Farms Idaho Gem™ hops. Idaho Gem™ was developed by Diane Gooding, owner and grower of Gooding Farms in Parma, Idaho.

 Turbid-18 Hazy IPA – Green Bench Brewing & Loza Farms

We got together with our friends at Green Bench Brewing and Loza Farms to brew Turbid-18 Hazy IPA in honor of all the hop growers of America gathering together in Tampa. Loza Farms, owned and operated by Leon and Junior Loza, is the first Hispanic-owned hop farm in the U.S. and is located in Wapato, WA. The Centennial and Simcoe® featured in this Turbid batch give floral notes to this juicy brew.

Cheers to bringing hop growers and brewers together!

Green Chief® Meeting

During the annual Hop Growers Convention YCH held our monthly Green Chief® program meeting. The Green Chief program is our farmer best practices program coordinated in partnership with Yakima Chief Ranches. Our network of grower owners and grower partners gather to partake in educational and collaborative meetings to promote and develop strong baselines, guidelines and practices for traceability, harvest food safety, data collection and reporting. During this meeting, YCH and YCR team members presented:

  • Global Sales Update
  • Harvest 2021 Sensory and Quality Overview
  • Bale Compression Study
  • Propagation Update
  • Sustainability and Overview on Green Chief® Changes
  • Grower Portal (mobile app) 2022 Updates

Ballad of Fort Road

At the Yakima Chief Hop Green Chief® Hoppy Hour, we released the ‘Ballad of Fort Road’ by Cody Beebe & the Crooks music video. Recorded live in a hop kiln at Carpenter Ranches, 'Ballad of Fort Road' is a tribute to Tom Carpenter, Jr., fourth generation hop grower of Carpenter Ranches, and the hop growing families who have fought to keep the farms going during the challenging years. Fitting for the Growing Resiliency summit. The video was introduced by Joe Catron, Graham Gamache and Brad Carpenter, each sharing meaningful words about the song and the story of the resilient hop growers who provide hops for beer all around the world. In a moving moment, all those in attendance raised a glass (or can of Farmers IPA) in honor of generations past, down on Fort Road.

Ballad of Fort Road will be available on Spotify Feb. 11th, 2022.

Congratulations to Cascade Cup Winners!

On the final night of the Hop Growers Convention, the prestigious annual Cascade Cup award is announced. A friendly, but fierce competition among the hop growing community for top notch Cascade hop production. This year we extend our congratulations to the winners of this year’s competition.

Cascade Cup Winners

1st Place: B&D Farms

2nd Place: Jackson Farms

3rd Place: Coleman Agriculture Greenleaf Farms

Well done!

Cheers to old friends and new, gathering together to share what matters most - valuable agriculture education resources and good beer made with the best hops!