Lessons Learned from Commercial Hop Growers
Homebrewers with a small hop garden who recently have harvested their crop may wonder about those who grow hops for a living.
Recently, I spoke at length with a longtime grower who offered some fascinating insights into Humulus lupulus, this most interesting of plant species and very important brewing ingredient, as well as what is involved in growing them commercially on a large scale.
Diana Puterbaugh is a partner in Puterbaugh Farms, a family operation located near Mabton in the Yakima Valley of south central Washington.
They grow and sell hops to breweries worldwide and also offer hops and a number of related products to homebrewers and others under the name Hops Direct (www.hopsdirect.com).
A Legacy of Prohibition
Diana’s husband Stacey’s family, who came originally from France by way of Canada, settled the area during the very early 1900s. In 1932, with the imminent end of Prohibition, his grandfather was contacted by Anheuser-Busch about the possibility of growing hops.
Over the course of more than 200 years, the center of American hop growing had moved gradually westward to Washington State. The fertile volcanic soil and dry climate east of the mountains (hops are susceptible to mildew), along with an irrigation source from snowmelt in the nearby Cascade Range, have proven nearly ideal for hops, along with other crops.
About two-thirds of American hops now are grown in the Yakima Valley; most of the remainder comes from the Willamette Valley of Oregon and the Snake River Valley in Idaho.
That first field on the Puterbaugh family farm was planted in Clusters, which were the dominant American hop variety into the 1990s. “We call it the ‘grandma yard,’” Diana says.
In the ensuing years, the operation has grown to 450–500 acres (180–200 hectares) of hops today, more than 80% of their total acreage under cultivation. Their other crops include sweet cherries, apples and pumpkins. “Diversification is mandatory for agriculture,” she says. “Life is good, but markets change.”
Today the original field (known as a hopyard by growers) continues to be planted in Clusters, but the farm now grows about a dozen different hop varieties.
Puterbaugh says the most popular today are Cascade and Willamette, with Centennial also increasing in production. “Commercial hop growing requires a lot of volume in order to support the specialized machinery,” she points out.
This includes harvesting machinery designed and manufactured specifically for hops, as well as other equipment such as drying kilns and hop balers.
Times of the Season
For the Puterbaughs, the hop season begins in February and extends into November. During late winter, the hop-yards are prepared for spring.
New yards require the installation of tall poles (18–21 feet or 6–7 meters high) and trellis wires to support the vines. All the fields are laid out in a grid so that the vines can be trained to climb up smaller wires to the trellises after they emerge from the ground.
The size of each hopyard varies, but Puterbaugh indicates that 60 acres (24 hectares) is an average.
Hop rhizomes — the thick, finger-sized roots that are planted about 6 inches (15 cm) deep in the ground — are dug and cut from existing fields, some for replanting and others that are offered for sale to commercial growers and homebrewers.
In the Yakima Valley, hop planting occurs in early March once the ground has fully thawed. Hops like cool soil (Puterbaugh compares them to mums and irises) and are quite tolerant of light to moderate frosts.
Late March and April are spent stringing stakes and smaller wires for the young shoots as they emerge. “Stringing is quite an operation,” says Puterbaugh. The stringers are ambidextrous and perform the task with both hands at the same time. “It requires a lot of dexterity.”
By early May, the young vines are trained by hand to twine around the wires and they begin to grow quite rapidly in the warm spring air and abundant sunlight. Eventually they climb up the nearly vertical wires and spread out across the wire trellises supported by the poles above.
Irrigation of the fields begins in early April and continues until just before the harvest. The Yakima Valley lies in the rain shadow of the mountains and is almost entirely dependent upon irrigated water.
Normally every 7–10 days, water pumped from the river and channeled into canals by the local irrigation district is directed into the fields and applied by drip irrigation, although one hopyard with less dense soil is sprayed.
The ground is thoroughly soaked, but it is then allowed to dry completely in order to prevent mildew.
Trouble in paradise
Any problems typically show themselves by late spring or early summer. These include aphids and spider mites, which damage the plant by sucking the juices from the leaves. Pests tend to be seasonal, worse in some years than in others.
Diana Puterbaugh mentions that her roses are a good indicator of aphid infestation. “When they move in, you have to act quickly and follow up,” she says. “We try to use low-invasive methods.” The usual remedy is insecticidal oil that is sprayed on the plants and smothers the bugs. Once the blooms appear, growers are prohibited by law from using any pesticides.
Mildew can also be a problem if the spring weather is damp. According to Puterbaugh, “Mildew percolates up from the soil. It shows itself as white spots on the lower leaves.
The best thing to do is to strip the leaves below waist height.” This allows for airflow and better circulation and minimizes the effect on the higher leaves and the rest of the plant. “Once they are established and there is healthy leaf growth, they tend to take care of themselves,” she adds.
Blooming (the green flowers are called burrs) occurs in very late June and early July, following the summer solstice as the hours of sunlight begin to diminish.
The burrs become the characteristic hop cones that grow and ripen throughout the rest of the season. By July 10, it is possible to have an idea of the size and quality of the crop.
When we spoke to Puterbaugh in mid-July she was optimistic about the 2006 crop.
“It’s all Mother Nature,” she says. “You have to be willing to work with her, not against her.”
You reap what you sow
Harvest of the cones begins in mid-August and lasts for approximately one month. Each variety matures at a slightly different time, which is fortunate for the farm’s busy schedule at that season.
The hopyards are examined on a daily basis. “That’s something my husband’s been born with,” Diana Puterbaugh says. “He’s married to his farm. He walks the fields and sees them every day. He can tell when they’re ready.”
The harvest begins when a tractor equipped with a cutter severs the vines about a foot (30 cm) off the ground, leaving enough to provide the plant with nutrition for the fall and to maintain a good rootstock for the winter.
A combine follows, pushing an empty hop truck in front. It trims the vines and deposits them in the bed of the truck. Once filled, the truck returns to a picking machine that inverts the vines and strips the cones. The vine residue is saved to be used later as mulch on the fields in the fall.
The cones exit onto a conveyor belt that carries them to a gas-fired kiln to be dried. They are spread in the kiln to a thickness of 2–3 feet (70–100 cm) and heated to a temperature of 145–150 °F (63–65 °C) for from 8 to 12 hours, depending on the hop variety and moisture content.
Diana Puterbaugh says hop drying is something of an art. Her husband’s brother Parris — whose skill she likens to that of a baker, who must know exactly when a recipe is done — supervises drying operations on the farm.
Once dried, the cones are spread out on a concrete floor in a cooling shed, where they remain for an additional 6 to 12 hours. Then they are put on another conveyor and transported to the baler, which partially compresses them and wraps the bales in either burlap or plastic, depending on the customer’s preference.
A standard US hop bale weighs 200 lbs. (91 kg).
By law, the hop bales must be inspected. A state-certified inspector comes every day during the harvest and removes cores from randomly selected bales.
These are measured for the percentage of undesirable leaves, stems and seeds, and a sample is sent to a laboratory for analysis of such critical values as the moisture and alpha acid content. Once the lab report is received, the bales can be shipped.
The farm maintains a cold storage facility so that the hops remain fresh, but often they are shipped within a day or two of being kilned.
Puterbaugh Farms numbers among their customers breweries both large and small throughout the world, including some very well known names.
Diana Puterbaugh says their largest customer is an English brewery, but Anheuser-Busch remains a valued customer, just as in her husband’s grandfather’s day.
“They’ve been very good to us over the years,” she is quick to mention, “and we try to be good to them in return.” Orders range from entire truckloads of hop bales to quantities as small as a pound (0.45 kg) for customers who are homebrewers.
Life on the farm
After the busy harvest season, the pace of the farm slows somewhat. Organic fertilizer in the form of seasoned cow manure from local farms is applied on the fields and very lightly worked into the soil beginning in October, and the vine residue from the harvest, dried and separated from any weeds, is spread as mulch on top.
Puterbaugh says the process is completed by Thanksgiving. This leaves the roots in good shape for the winter. “We try to give everyone a few months off. Of course there is always equipment and shop maintenance. It’s never quite a total rest.”
As with most activities, hop farming has become more expensive than it used to be. Puterbaugh cites energy costs, water for irrigation and labor as the largest expenses.
Washington has a high minimum wage, and up to 50 workers are employed during the harvest season, with a regular crew of about 20 during most of the remainder of the year.
“It’s harder than it was years ago,” Diana Puterbaugh says. “There is more paperwork, more health and safety issues, more regulations. I’d like to say something from a farmer’s standpoint: we live where we work, and we look after things with a vested interest.
We care about preserving our environment. We want the farm to do well, and we want to be able to pass it on to our children.” Toward that end, they actively participate in hop growers’ organizations and seek to make regulators, legislators and the general public aware of their work and concerns.
However, she is also quick to point out some of the joys and satisfaction that come from hop growing and farming in general:
“To some extent, you’re your own boss, you have your hands on the wheel, you get to guide where you go. We’re proud of what we do. I urge everyone to support your local farmers.”
