Another story featuring Coleman Agriculture, as it pertains to fresh hops—because it’s the season, don’t you know! (See my post on Bill Coleman previously.) Being that it’s essentially from Coleman, it’s a promo piece for the company, but interesting for some info on the hop harvest.

The article:

While hop growers invest big budgets in hop dryers to preserve and ship hops to breweries across the country, Coleman Agriculture is seeing rising demand for fresh hops picked straight from the bine by local brewers and used within 24 hours of harvest.

“We’ve been welcoming brewers to our farm for the past eight years to pick fresh hops,” said Ben Coleman, Co-Owner of Coleman Agriculture. “Brewers and their customers want the local connection to where their ingredients are from, which is why fresh hop beers are continuing to grow in popularity among the craft brewing community.”

Coleman Agriculture is Oregon’s largest hop grower and is managed by multiple generations of the Coleman family. With four different hop farms and harvest locations across the Willamette Valley, brewers have access to locally grown, high-quality Coleman hops while having the luxury of visiting whichever farm is closest to them. At times, different Coleman farms could be picking different varieties, so brewers have the unique opportunity to potentially pick up two different hop varieties in the same day.

How Fresh Hop Harvesting Works

• Fresh hop harvest typically takes place in the cool mornings when hop bines, which average 18 feet in height, are cut down and placed on a truck bed.
• A picking machine then strips the hops from the bine and stems are then separated from the cones (the cones are what are used in the brewing process).
• Brewers are welcome to come directly to the farm and fill up cloth bags with fresh, pre-kilned hop cones, which are then taken directly back to the brewery and used within 24 hours.
• Fifteen (15) different varieties of hops are available for fresh hopping at Coleman this year.

Some notable brewers using Coleman Agriculture fresh hops this year include: Barrel Mountain Brewing (WA), Baerlic Brewing (OR), Breakside Brewing (OR), Del Cielo Brewing (CA), Deschutes Brewery (OR), Doomsday Brewing Company (OR), Ferment Brewing (WA), Fort George Brewery (OR), Ghost Town Brewing (CA), Great Notion Brewery (OR), Hop Valley Brewing (OR), Laurelwood Brewing (OR), Level Beer (OR), Ninkasi Brewing (OR), Ruse Brewing (OR), Silvermoon Brewing (OR), among others.

Deschutes Brewery’s first fresh hop beer this season uses hops from Coleman—Killer Coleman Fresh Hop Centennial IPA (which just went on tap at the Bend Pub today, September 1). Expect to see more, as the brewery list above attests.