C Magazine - Summer 2018

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Jennifer Chick 2018-07-20 06:30:28

Hops are grown on a trellis system, which lets Kyle Shinn and other lower Yakima Valley farmers use drip irrigation to efficiently deliver water and chemicals to growing plants.

HOPPIN’ GOOD

Microbreweries are nearly as common as coffee shops across the Pacific Northwest. That’s good news for area hops growers, who supply nearly all the hops used to make the craft beers consumers are demanding.

“Washington’s Yakima Valley is the heart of U.S. hops growing,” says Kyle Shinn, a third-generation hops grower with Shinn & Son Inc. in the lower Yakima Valley. “Our Northwest climate is just about ideal for hops.”

Shinn works closely with Bleyhl Co-op, a local cooperative based in Grandview, Wash., for everything from fuel and hop supplies to crop protection products for his 2,500 acres of hops.

“Most of my work with hops growers involves monitoring diseases and pests, guiding plant nutrition and providing strategy for the year,” says Sarah Del Moro, an agronomist with Bleyhl Co-op. “Hops are a significant flavor component in craft beer, so each farm’s goals are different depending on who it is growing hops for.”

Shinn says the market for hops has changed drastically in the last five years. “We used to grow half alpha hops and half aroma hops, but due to craft beer demand, now three-quarters of our ranch is aroma hops,” he says.

“Craft brewers are particular about quality. They want to know where their hops come from, seeing them throughout the growing season and during harvest. They like to buy from family farms.”

Published by CHS Inc. View All Articles.

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