Hop Harvest Time At Elk Mountain

, Hop Harvest Time At Elk Mountain

It was raining lightly when I awoke at dawn, and the soft echoing sounds it made falling on my tent was awesome. 

It was day two of my trip to the Elk Mountain Hop Farm, and I hurriedly readied myself for what would be a full day exploring the farm and learning the whole hop harvesting process courtesy of the Goose Island and Anheuser-Busch crews.

Everyone was sheltered and in good spirits when I hit the main tasting tent and I did my best to act like I hadn’t enjoyed too much beer the night before. The rain seemed to be letting up (as Peter Wolf, the hop chemist for Anheuser-Busch, assured me it would) and we proceeded to board one of many semi-dry golf carts to begin our tour of the farm.

, Hop Harvest Time At Elk MountainI knew little to nothing about the hop growing and harvesting process prior to Goose Island and Anheuser-Busch having me out to Elk Mountain. But after a day spent learning from people like Ed Atkins, the General Manager of Elk Mountain Farm, I’m in awe that anyone would even attempt to pull off something like this – let alone, on this scale.

Here’s some of what I learned that day…

Growing hops is the magical fusion of almost ancient agrarian techniques, finely honed industrial command, and the most up-to-date scientific analysis. A whole year’s preparation goes into being ready for the harvest and if anything goes wrong along the way, the consequences could be brutal.

Hop harvest season begins in late August and lasts through early September at Elk Mountain. Full production was just beginning during our visit and I could feel things ramping up considerably in the days I was there. More than 220 people staff and work the farm 24/7 during this period and ideally, the whole hop crop is picked in three weeks.

Elk Mountain produces more than 60 varieties of hops – primarily aroma, or ‘flavor,’ hops but also some high alpha, or bitter, hops. Some of the hops currently being grown include Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial, Mt. Hood, and Nugget varieties, and Goose Island uses a lot of those. The farm workers had just begun harvesting and drying the wonderful American Saaz hops during our visit and their spicy aroma permeated everything.

, Hop Harvest Time At Elk MountainAs we walked down the long, lush hop corridors, Atkins explained the plants’ journey from Elk Mountain’s greenhouses to their carefully prepared and monitored fields – where perfect conditions and 16 hours of sunlight would eventually lead to the rows of towering hops that surrounded us. Goose Island’s Brewmaster Brett Porter blew my mind when he added that during peak growing season, a hop plant can grow an amazing foot a day. But that’s just the beginning of a hop’s incredible journey that starts in this beautiful place.

An intricate system of poles and trellises has been constructed for 889 hops plants per acre, each one with vines that will eventually grow 18 feet high. The trellis system, itself, is an incredible enterprise. Elk Mountain Farm uses more than 2,880,000 pounds of wire to construct its basic framework, and around 12,600 miles of twine are used in stringing up the hops! 

Massive combines were harvesting hops near us as we walked the fields. These things are right out of Star Wars and they run 24/7 at harvest time, removing the vines from the trellises.

, Hop Harvest Time At Elk MountainThe hop vines are then quickly transported to an enormous on-site facility that further separates the leaves and vines from the fresh hops, and readies them for the drying compound – an enormous kiln where the hops are corralled three feet deep and slowly dried for hours by 130-degree breezes fanned in from below.

, Hop Harvest Time At Elk MountainOnce dried, the hops move on to a third complex, where they are baled into 200 pound units and shipped to Washington State to be converted into hop pellets ready for the brewing process.

The day’s trip was eye-opening and humbling at the same time – and I’m pretty sure that I’ll never look at a beer quite the same way again. These people are doing some impressive things out West in God’s country and it’s all coming together now … at hop harvest time.

 

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