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Worthy Brewing creates OSU-affiliated hops yard in Bend
By Mac McLean / The Bulletin
Published: April 06. 2013 4:00AM PST
A crisp, lemon-like aroma filled a large storage refrigerator at Worthy Brewing Co.'s east Bend production facility when brewmaster Chad Kennedy opened a foil bag of Meridian hops and started running his fingers through their light green cones. |
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34th annual Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic.
This is the longest running stage race in the nation thanks to all of our genereous local sponsors, the support for the community and of course the incredible courses! |
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Last week I organized a panel of respected beer connoisseurs Brian Yaeger, Charles Culp and "SNOB" Ritch Marvin to go along with myself to the Indie Hops offices and evaluate new test hop varietals bred at Oregon State University. It's not often the public or even media get a first hand chance to taste and more importantly smell new hops in development and the opportunity was thanks to Jim Solberg co-owner of Indie Hops. |
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Excellent article that connects the dots between the hop growers (e.g. Goschie Farms), the hop merchants (e.g., Indie Hops), and the Oregon craft brewers (e.g. HUB and Oakshire). Fittingly, the writer Sophia McDonald tells the story about how Indie Hops was hatched at the HUB in Portland on a starry starry night.
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Craft beer, an industry that’s seen explosive growth, showcases the flavorful hops Budweiser abandoned. Craft brewers—who have long used the same raw materials as the big boys—now want better new hop breeds that tap the plant’s extreme complexity. February 15, 2012 |
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Oregon Beer Lovers Help a Dozen New Pubs, Breweries Open in 2010 - January 4, 2011 |
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"Small Hop Farms Cropping Up" - October 18, 2010 |
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Growers Near Win in Battle to Mandate Organic Hops in Organic Beer - October 18, 2010 |
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Indie Hops Supports Petition to Remove Hops from Incentive-Killing 606 National List - September 29, 2010 |
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Indie Hops Rocks Fiesta Island - September 13, 2010 |
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Indie Hops Pellet Mill, The New Brewer, (July/Aug 2010) - August 26, 2010 |
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Modern Brewery Age: Interview with Jim Solberg of Indie Hops - July 16, 2010 |
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Senator Ron Wyden, Local Brewery Owners, Hops Growers and Equipment Manufacturers on Creating More Jobs by Lowering Federal Taxes on Craft Beer - July 2, 2010 |
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From Courtroom Battles to Harvesting Hops - June 17, 2010 |
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Less is More – Larry Sidor, Deschutes Brewery’s Head Hopster - June 14, 2010 |
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Chad Kennedy to Hop Merchants: Less Flower Powder, More Flower Power - June 10, 2010
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8th Annual Indie Hops Mt. Hood Cycling Classic Goes Down in History as a Great Success, Thanks to You! - June 10, 2010 |
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Do Your Pellets Pack Enough Punch? Field Testing from Pizza Port Carlsbad - May 28, 2010 |
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Flower to the People: OSU Empowers Hop Sensory Panel - May 17, 2010 |
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Indie Hops Puts New Plant to Work With Tip Toward Craft Brewers - April 28, 2010 |
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How They Make Hop Pellets at Oregon's First Hop Pellet Plant - March 5, 2010 |
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Jobs Watch: Indie Hops Grows Investment (Oregon Business.com) - April 5, 2010 |
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Willamette Valley Plant is Hopping - March 6, 2010 |
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Indie Hops Partners With the 4th Annual Dana Point Grand Prix of Cycling - February 19, 2010 |
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OSU Received $1 Million Gift for Hops Breeding and Chemistry Research - February 8, 2010 |
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The Indie Hops Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, June 1-6, 2010 - February 5, 2010 |
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Cast Your Vote FOR Competition - January 14, 2010 |
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Indie Hops Pledges $200,000 to OSU for Hop Chemistry Research - January 8, 2010 |
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Building Better Aroma Hops Survey - November 14, 2010 |
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Indie Hops Sets Sail - November 6, 2010 |
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Oil Re-discovered in Oregon! - October 1, 2009 |
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[from Willamette Week, February 15, 2012]
Four years ago, things were great for Gayle Goschie. She was growing hops on the same 1,000 acres in the Willamette Valley that her parents and grandparents had tended, selling a key ingredient to Anheuser-Busch. The sharp-eyed, soft-spoken farmer vacationed in Nepal and Peru and had plans to summit Mount Hood. Everything changed in the summer of 2008. > More |
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[from OregonLive.com, John Foyston, Special to The Oregonian, January 3, 2011]
Indie Hops' big year: Jim Solberg and Roger Worthington aim to elevate Oregon's wonderful aroma hops to an even higher plane, and their company, Indie Hops, unveiled a new $2 million hop pelletizing plant in Hubbard that makes hops pellets at lower temperatures than previously possible, preserving delicate flavor compounds. The company also pledged $807,000 to OSU for hop research and has provided $200,000 to OSU's Thomas Shellhammer to foster research in new techniques for developing aroma hops and to study aroma hop chemistry. > More |
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Jim Solberg and Greg Kiscock, editor of the Mid-Atlandic Brewing News as well as regular contributor to The New Brewer discuss the existence of small hop farms popping up across the country from roof tops in Chicago to backyards on the West Coast. > More
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[from OregonLive.com, Scott Learn, The Oregonian, Oct. 17, 2010]
After years of trying, organic hop growers, most clustered in the Northwest, are poised to win a bitter and bizarre battle: requiring organic hops in organic beer.
The National Organic Standards Board will take up the issue later this month. Last week, a board subcommittee voted to mandate organic hops in organic beer in about three years.
Pat Leavy, a Willamette Valley hops grower and president of the American Organic Hop Grower Association, says he's taking nothing for granted until the board vote. But he's pleased with the recommendation. "It's a reasonable policy that gets us where we want to go," Leavy says. > More
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Indie Hops is a new hop merchant located in Portland, Oregon. We have contracted with Goschie Farms in Silverton, Oregon to grow 20 acres of USDA certified organic hops. GF planted said acreage earlier this Spring. We do not have a single contract with any brewers to buy these certified organic hops, which will be commercially available in 2011 and 2012.
We support the petition to remove hops from the National List. We agree with the arguments raised on behalf of the petitioners, but would like to take this opportunity to amplify a point of grave concern. The Handling Committee, in deciding to preserve the status quo, wrote that “the onus of proof is on the handler to prove to it’s certifier that conventional forms of hops would be necessary in an organic product.” > More |
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SAN DIEGO. Fueled by bitterness, Indie Hops stayed low, tight and fast to win the Fiesta Island Team Time Trial on September 11th, scorching the 40k island course in 49:57.
The rag tag team of beer lovers included Jason "Quadzilla" Bausch, Kenny "The Gambler" Rogers, T.S. Fuggov and Max Kash Agro (aka, Roger Worthington).
"We hydrated the night before on a robust menu of the local San Diego Imperial IPAs," recounted MKA, soberly. "The race started at sunrise, so we carefully titrated the blood-alcohol to return to baseline just as the gun went off. About half-way through, with the pace hovering at 30 mph, I admit to struggling. But the prospect of pouring down a Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA at the finish line helped me block out the pain." > More |
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Press Release of Senator Wyden
Senator Ron Wyden, owners of craft breweries in the Willamette Valley, hops growers and other suppliers will hold a news conference on at 10:30 a.m., Monday, July 5, 2010, on legislation to lower the federal tax on craft beer. Wyden is co-sponsoring legislation that will cut the tax on craft beer in order to stimulate investment and job growth. Craft brewing is a $2.3 billion business in Oregon, employing 4,700 people. > More
Owners of local breweries, including Ninkasi, Oakshire, Block 15 and others; Representatives of the Oregon Hops Growers Association; Indie Hops, local brewing equipment manufacturers, and OSU Fermentation Science/Hops Research Programs
Jim Solberg of Indie Hops is a member of the panel and will be a speak at the event. > More |
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Bloomberg Business Week, June 17, 2010
By Chris Taylor
In the courtroom, Roger Worthington was someone you wanted in your corner. A self-confessed alpha male, his intensity was put to good use representing victims of asbestos-related cancer. "I lived that life full-in and full-on for more than 20 years," says Worthington, 49, who won more than $1 billion for his clients. Asbestos-related cancer "is an insidious disease and highly preventable. It was a calling for me.".> More
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Larry Sidor is a whole hop guy. It’s basically non-negotiable. Having worked for a Yakima hop merchant and an industrial brewer back in the day, Larry has seen first-hand the ravages that processing inflicts upon the noble flower. The Master Brewer for Deschutes who has brought us Abyss, Dissident, Red Chair IPA and Green Lakes Organic Ale (my personal favorite) is a big fan of fresh, wholesome ingredients.
“As a rule, the less we tamper with it, the more I’ll probably like it,” he says.
So you can imagine my trepidation as I walked inside the Deschutes Brewery in Bend with my cooler of hop pellets to meet up with our hop purist. As I told one brewer earlier about my hop ambitions, my goal is to one day create a hop pellet that earns the blessing of Larry Sidor, the High Hop Priestess. I was of course prepared for a polite but firm woodshedding.
What I got instead was a captivating tutorial by a man who not only knows his craft but is eager to learn more. Although Larry is a stickler for whole cones, occasionally, when a beer screams out for pellets (and he's a few bales short), he will listen. Larry had on hand four pelletted varieties from four different suppliers: three from Yakima and one from Germany.> More |
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Portland, Or. I recently sat down with Chad Kennedy, Brewmaster at Laurelwood Brewing Company, to get his unabashed feedback on our hop pellet design, coarseness, feel and solubility. Chad’s a perfect judge – he’s hard core about getting it right, yet he has a playful spirit that can turn impressively wonkish on a dime. He’s candid, calls it like he sees, feels and smells it, and if he had a dogma, I’m guessing it would be something hip like: question authority, but don’t be a jerk about it.
I broke out a sample of our Cascade hop pellets from the 2009 harvest at Goschie Farms (5.6% Alpha, 4.9% Beta). We pelleted these at our spanking new mill in late April after keeping them in cold storage since September 2009. Chad fished out a sample of 2009 Cascade pellets as well, processed by The Old Guard (I made that up), the farmer(s) unknown (AA 8.3%, doctor say’s whoa! That’s high). > More |
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What a week! This year's Indie Hops Mt. Hood Cycling Classic was packed full of great racing, good times and challenging weather. Each stage brought something different, and we were so pleased to have sponsorship support from each one of you, to insure the success of this event. We hope you were able to come out and see some of the action. Here are some photos and links to another memorable race. On behalf of the Indie Hops Mt. Hood Cycling Classic - Thank you > More
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I dropped by Pizza Port in Carlsbad, California this week to conduct a little impromptu field research with award-winning master brewer Jeff Bagby. The mission: compare Indie Hops’ type 90 pellets with that of the competition.
As reported, we’ve designed a state of the art pellet mill that’s sized and scaled to meet the needs of craft brewers. We’ve increased the average particle size of the grist and lowered the temperature at the pellet die in order to minimize damage to the lupulin glans, home of the rich and aromatic hop oils. We designed the mill with the goal of converting the form of the noble flower without excessively oxidizing the oils. > More |
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Hood River, Or. Oregon State's Hop Docs wanted feedback from Pacific Northwest brewers on building a new aroma hop and it sounds like they got an earful.
The consensus? Dial down the alpha, jack up the oils, and add something "tropical" to our flavor arsenal beyond the all-pervasive citrus bomb.
In it's mission to breed new aroma hops, Oregon State pulled together a panel of seasoned craft brewers, predominantly from Oregon, to evaluate a series of single hop brews. > More
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By John Foyston
Special to The Oregonian
April 28, 2010
Indie Hops' shiny new $2 million hop-pelletizing plant in Hubbard is the most tangible evidence of CEO Jim Solberg's belief that it's time for the American craft brewers to move out of the shadow of the giants.
The plant has already proved that it can make hop pellets at 110 degrees and less -- 20 or 30 degrees cooler than current methods. The lower temperatures better preserve the delicate hop oils and aromas that craft brewers prize. > More
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| "It's fantastic to support a company passionate about craft beer, and Indie hops has been a breeze to deal with," he said. "I simply call or e-mail Jim, and I have hops within a couple days. Their packaging is solid, vacuumed sealed and fresh." Nick Arzner, Block 15 Brewery |
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By Carinci, Justin
Publication: Daily Journal of Commerce
Date: Friday, March 5, 2010
A visit this week to the Indie Hops hop pellet plant, Oregon's first, showed the fascinating process of converting hop flower clusters into the small, greenish pellets most brewers use.
First, grab a 200-pound bale of hops from the giant walk-in refrigerator and take it over to the shredder. From there, a complex
automated process begins. > More
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April 5, 2010
By Ben Jaklet
This just in from Oregon’s ever-growing beer biz: Portland-based startup Indie Hops will donate $1 million to Oregon State University to launch a new breeding program for aroma hops grown in the Willamette Valley. Add that donation to a second million-dollar Indie Hops investment to develop the first hop pellet mill in the Valley along with cold storage and distribution facilities, and you’ve got a new company that could give craft brewers the stability and respect that they deserve.
It is fitting that the only U.S. hop merchant dedicated entirely to aroma hops for craft breweries is based in Oregon. Oregonians have been growing first-rate hops and brewing excellent beer since statehood, but for reasons involving the corporate dominance of the Anheuser-Busch InBevs of the world, hops and beer have remained surprisingly disconnected here. > More |
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By Todd Milbourn
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Picking a favorite beer isn't simply a matter of taste. It's a matter of smell.
So as Oregon State University researchers try to discover the next big thing in Oregon beer, they're following their noses.
The school recently received a $1 million grant from IndieHops, one of the state's largest private sellers of hops. > Click here for video |
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POSTED: Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 04:52 PM PT
BY: Justin Carinci
Oregon is ripe with both hop farms and the small breweries that depend on locally grown hops to give their beers distinctive flavors. Yet before Oregon hops make it to Oregon brewers, most take a detour out of state.
General Contractor BooCo Construction is finishing a hop processing plant in the Willamette Valley that will eliminate that detour. The plant will turn hops, the cone-like flower of the hop plant, into small pellets favored by brewers.
Hops supplier Indie Hops leased out 4,500 square feet of an agricultural warehouse in Hubbard, a town that hosts an annual hop festival, to make the pellets. Despite the small space, company CEO Jim Solberg said the plant, called a pelleting line, can process enough hop pellets to supply the state’s largest craft brewers
At the plant, hops await processing in a 19-foot-by-50-foot cold storage room 18 feet in height. The 200-pound compressed bales of hop varieties such as fuggle and Cascade fill the 26-degree room with a sharp, floral aroma. > More |
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Luscious pellets coming out of the cooler, on their way to the "scalpal sifter" that cleans the "fines" out so that only clean pellets go into the packaging bin.
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The Dana Point Grand Prix of Cycling Is Pleased to Announce the Title Sponsorship of Indie Hops for This Year's USA Cycling NRC Sanctioned Even April 10-11.
DANA POINT, CALIFORNIA (FEB 19, 2010) – The Dana Point Community Cycling Foundation (DPCCF) is pleased to announce a new title sponsor for the the 4th Annual Dana Point Grand Prix: Indie Hops, an aroma hops merchant headquartered in Portland, Oregon.
Indie Hops supplies Oregon-grown aroma hops to craft brewers nationwide. “Craft beer and action sports go hand in hand,” said Indie Hops owner Roger Worthington. “We think a well- hopped beverage, loaded with xanthohumol and quercetin, is a vital recovery drink for athletes and anyone else who wishes to live life well.” This year the DPGP will feature the “Killer Cove” time trial on Saturday, April 10th. The 2.3 mile circuit will test the racers’ speed, power, descending, climbing and bike handling. The racers will hit speeds of over 45 mph as they enter Harbor Drive, but will drop below 10 mph as they soldier up and over Cove Road, which features an 18% grade. > More |
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Corvallis, Ore. - Oregon State University announced the creation of a new aroma hop breeding program within the OSU Department of Crop and Soil Science. The new breeding program was made possible by an $807,000 gift pledge from Indie Hops, an Oregon-based hop merchant, through the Agricultural Research Foundation, a corporate affiliate of Oregon State University. Shaun Townsend, a U.S. Department of Agriculture hop breeding specialist and courtesy professor at OSU, will lead the new program.
This gift comes in addition to $200,000 from Indie Hops to Thomas Shellhammer, holder of the Nor’Wester Professorship in Fermentation Science in OSU’s Department Food Sciences and Technology, to foster research in new techniques for developing aroma hops and to study aroma hop chemistry. The breeding program will work closely with Shellhammer's lab to study hop essential oil composition and how individual oil components impart the characteristic flavor and aroma to beer. > More
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Hopmeister Dr. Shaun Townsend, armed with clipboard and Foster Grants, evaluating green gold at OSU hopyards in Corvallis, Or. Congratulations Shaun, now get us some oil! |
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Indie Hops has agreed to sponsor the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, a six day race that starts in Oregon, winds through Washington, rips through the Columbia Gorge, powers up to Mt. Hood and finishes in a flurry of speed and sound in downtown Hood River. Indie Hops believes a well-hopped brew is a vital part of any serious athlete's training table. > More
With all due respect to Michelob Ultra Lite point man Lance Armstrong, real men prefer beer that nourishes the tummy and the mind.
CyclingNews.com: 'Mt. Hood finds title sponsor in Indie Hops' 2/12/2010
BikePortland.org: ‘Mt. Hood Cycling Classic returns to Portland in 2010’ 2/8/2010
Podiumsight.com: ‘Mt. Hood Cycling Classic returns for 2010' 2/6/2010
Oregon Cycling Action: ‘Hood adds PDX stages, cuts pro women’s race for 2010’ 2/5/2010
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| "Decisions, decisions. Do I celebrate finishing this thing with a Full Sail Amber Ale or a Double Mountain Hop Lava???" Roger Worthington, Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, Hood River, Oregon (2009). |
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There's nothing like tough competition to encourage suppliers to treat customers fairly. A few years ago brewers were shelling out over $26 for a pound of Cascade pellets. Today, brewers can find the same pellets on the "spot" market selling for a fraction of that unsustainably inflated price.
Many of you have already been offered a "deal" in which your supplier will agree to slash their bloated prices on the condition you agree to again lock in for another three years. But this time, you don't have a gun to your head. There is competition. The playing field has been leveled. > More |
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2010 Order Form (To Enlarge, click here) |
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Portland, Or.- Indie Hops has pledged $200,000 to fund aroma hop chemistry research at Oregon State University. The gift will be used by Dr. Thomas Shellhammer, Ph.D, of the Department of Food Science and Technology over a four year period.
"Indie Hops is committed to learning more about how hop flavors and aromas that people like are created, and using that knowledge in the pursuit of new 'super aroma' hop varieties," said Roger Worthington, owner of Indie Hops, a new aroma hop supplier whose pellet milling and storage facility is located in Hubbard, Oregon. > More
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Pilot Brewery
Oregon State University,
Corvallis, Oregon |
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One of our highest priorities at Indie Hops is to be an effective communications link between craft brewers, hop growers, and hop scientists. 100% of our actions are driven by what you, the craft brewer, wants. We are now entering into long term contracts with our Oregon farmers, who will plant in the spring. All of our hops will be "Salmon-Safe" certified. We will also plant record number of acres in USDA certified organically grown varieties.
This is your chance to tell us what aroma varieties you want. Please participate in our survey. Are there hops you crave but can't get, or are too expensive? Are there varieties you've heard about but haven't been able to secure? Are you willing to experiment with unsung or "diamond in the rough" varieties? How about organically grown hops? > More |
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HopDataMiners
Jim Solberg, Hop Captain (L), Dr. Al Haunold, Venerable Hopmeister (C ), Roger Worthington, Eager Hop Pilgrim (R). |
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| Jim and Roger in Corvallis, Oregon |
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Rejoice Beer Drinkers! Oil has been discovered -- or, more accurately, re-discovered -- in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. No, not the infamously tarry “Texas Tea” of lore, but Green Gold, in the form of a flower, thriving above ground thanks to the rare and wonderous confluence of rich soil, pure water, long summer days and the nurturing skills of seasoned farmers.
The flower is found on female plants of Humulus lupulus. Magical oils from the Oregon-grown flowers were once the most sought after in the world for brewing premium beer. > More |
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