Dan Rybinski, Our Midlands UK Sales Manager gives his insights into the 2024 Pacific Northwest USA Hop Harvest after his visit to Portland, Oregon in September 2024. Over to you, Dan:
In early September, I embarked on one of the most career-affirming weeks in my 12-odd years of working in Craft Beer. I had the absolute pleasure of spending the week in Portland, Oregon, during the Pacific Northwest USA hop harvest 2024.
Craft beer in this country can make you feel jaded occasionally. It’s important to put some love and enthusiasm back in whenever you can, in an industry that feels like it has constantly been fighting against the macro economics to make itself heard and prominent.
I’d been in Portland for less than 2 hours when I had the first of my (many) epiphanies of the week. I was in a Migration brewpub, eating buffalo wings, watching Lord of the Rings playing on one of the pub’s big screens, and drinking Migration’s ‘Fresh Outta Portland’ West Coast IPA fresh hopped with Indie Hops Strata®. It was one of the most delicious beers I think I have ever had the pleasure of drinking.
There are many reasons why we look to our American cousins for the latest incoming beer and brewing trends. A lot of that of course is down to their relatively easy access to some of the best fresh hops in the world, and this is even more true for Portland breweries in Oregon’s hop growing country. In craft beer, it has always struck me how trends are often emulated in the west of Europe often 6-12 months after they have made a ‘big splash’ stateside. With that in mind I would not be surprised to be seeing West Coast Pilsners become the ubiquitous style of 2025. They were just about in every bar and brewery in Portland, and the majority of those I sampled were truly excellent. Clean, crisp, sessionable, and a beautiful fresh aroma seemed to be the gentle guidelines for one of these beautiful beers.
In fact, West Coast Pilsner was the style chosen for a collab brew we participated in with Breakside Brewery and Wicklow Wolf, one of our customers from Ireland. Andrew Hamilton, head brewer at Wicklow Wolf had joined in person us for the Portland hop harvest to hand select his chosen lots from Crosby Hops and Indie Hops. But more on that later…
This was actually the second year running Breakside had hosted one our brewing customers for a hop harvest collab, as Theo from DEYA joined them for a brew last year. Both collabs were kindly organised by our pals Brad and Nolan from Crosby Hops.
2024’s Breakside collab was brewed in the Breakside NW Slabtown Brewpub – a beautiful boutique space with a full mezzanine overlooking the tanks and barrel store. As is often customary post-collab, we got stuck into a few of Breakside’s beers fresh from the tank, which included a lineup of several Gold Medal winners from the GABF, as well as a few beers brewed as entries to this year’s contest. The lads were hopeful that they might enjoy some more success this year too, and from the beers I tasted I reckon they may be bringing home some more deserved gongs.
One of the things that I found really interesting was listening to Dylan Norby (Head of R&D at Breakside NW Slabtown Brewpub) talk about the importance of rice in the grist of their West Coast Pilsners, from a flavour profile aspect but also a thiol precursor perspective too. It isn’t something I have seen too much of here in the UK yet, and I do wonder if it is going to be one of those adopted trends we might just look to for inspiration when it comes to refining the IPL/Cold IPA/West Coast Pils. Andrew is one of the most technical brewers I’ve met and it was fantastic to watch him and Dylan swap notes on processes.
A real highlight of the week was the Indie Hops Strata® selection we did at Indie Hops HQ. Wicklow Wolf use Strata® in several of their core beers as well as specials so they get through a lot of this great hop. It was amazing to be able to give Andrew the chance to select his own lots for the upcoming crop year in person with Jim Solberg and Matt Sage from Indie Hops.
We undertook sensory testing of 5 different Strata® lots, with some really interesting contrast across each lot, some had the strawberry element ramped up, one in particular was all those pure dank marijuana aromas screaming out. All unmistakeable bore the unique characteristics of what makes Strata® a great multi-purpose hop though. The lot Andrew selected went with was definitely the most rounded of the group, balancing all the ripe soft fruit character with the dank and pine. I’m incredibly excited to see this year’s Indie Hops Strata® start hitting our shores and making its way into beers over here before too long – in the meantime though, there’s still our current stock for brewers to get stuck into brewing great beer with!
Of course, this being Portland and this being Indie Hops, it wasn’t just Strata® on the selection table either. Jim couldn’t resist putting some fresh cuts of Indie Hops Luminosa® and Indie Hops Audacia® out for us to sample. Both were incredible, and we’re particularly excited to see what brewers can do with Audacia® after its UK and European debut in DEYA’s first ever low alcohol beer ‘Circus of the Sun’ for Little Summer Beer Bash 2024. We’re looking forward to seeing Audacia®’s noble hop characteristics in some lagers next year, and seeing how you can make its whortleberry, blackcurrant, lingonberry, rose, and lavender flavours play in IPAs too!
Jim from Indie Hops was incredibly generous with his time throughout our stay, and joined us for some beers at Baerlic after Andrew’s Strata® selection and introduced us to the Creature Comforts team, who were just great guys. There seems to be a fairly constant revolving door at Indie Hops around the time of harvest, with a veritable who’s who of brewers dropping in to select from both Indie Hops developed varieties and Oregon grown classic hop varieties. We were blown away by how much time that was afforded to us by the Indie Hops team, from the previous day’s warehouse tour (including the fastest I’ve ever seen a lorry unloaded) and a full walk through of the Indie Hops pellet mill (Oregon’s first pellet mill), to the selection day itself, and then beers and dinner. The only plausible explanation is that Jim has several clones in many places at once!
Prior to this week, my only physical experience of hops being picked and processed was a pretty miserably cold, grey, rainy day, in a muddy field in the middle of Worcestershire, trying to brave the elements to sample that year’s Challenger. In Oregon, I had pretty much the polar opposite weather experience on a visit to Indie Hops growing partner Goschie Farms on a gorgeous warm sunny morning, plucking nicely sized Sterling cones off the bine, ripping open to reveal a burst of luminescent bright yellow lupulin with sweet citrus aromas filling the air. Goschie Farms are pioneers in sustainable hop farming, and were the first hop farm in the USA to be Salmon Safe certified, which is quite an accolade.
We had a similar incredible sensory overload at Coleman Agriculture too (who also grow hops for Indie Hops and Crosby Hops, amongst others). Here they were harvesting Amarillo® (VGXP01 cv). The contrast of vivid green hop cones against Coleman Ag’s signature blue hop harvester truck beds under the September sun is incredibly evocative. The kiln room had much more of that marmalade fragrance we associate Amarillo® (VGXP01 cv) with, the early signs on this year’s Amarillo® (VGXP01 cv) are very, very good, in a continuation of last year’s move back to those orangey notes. These guys have been working the land in Oregon for seven generations so I was inclined to trust what they had to say about the harvest this year!
Another farm trip which really struck a chord with me was our visit to B&D Farms in St Paul, Oregon. These folks have won the Cascade Cup a record 3 times and are a regular supplier of Cascade to Crosby Hops. We stopped by on a really bustling busy day, witnessing the speed and efficiency of the guys making sure no cone was left behind. We than sat down with Ben Smith, co founder, over a few beers in what can only be described as the holy grail of man caves. Fresh Sierra Nevada (using Ben’s Cascade, I believe) on tap, NFL on the TV, and delicious homemade enchiladas made by Cindy, (Ben’s wife) to boot. Some twenty or so minutes passes by and in walks the team from Masthead Brew Co, of Cleveland Ohio. As they were greeted by Ben and Cindy with an exchange of beers and hugs like you would an old friend, I thought about the relationship they clearly have and if there was anything like this in Worcestershire. Probably not.
We finished the week off at Crosby Hops for Andrew’s Centennial selection. Again, there were some incredible lots on the table, and we were once again hit by the quality of this year’s harvest. This was echoed when we caught up with Gabi McCarter, Senior Manager of Customer Operations at Crosby Hops, who remarked on this year’s strong harvest, with superb customer feedback on Centennial in particular. Crosby Estate Grown varieties like Comet were also smelling pretty incredible too.
As well as checking out the processing facility and pellet mill, we were also able to see the end-to-end sealed liquid nitrogen line which produces Crosby Hops CGX™ cryogenic lupulin pellets which was pretty neat, and a first for me! There was a new CGX™ product which hit the US market this hop harvest – CGX™ Fresh Hops – and it proved really popular, so we’re excited to watch that develop and hopefully bring it to some customers over here for next year’s harvest. Another new Crosby Hops project (do these guys ever stop?) is their programme developing their own experimental hop varieties, and we were lucky enough to tour the experimental hop fields with none other than Blake Crosby himself, together with Dr Jay, the project manager. There’s some interesting varieties in those fields for sure, and we’ll watch that project with keen interest!
The day (and week) culminated with the Crosby Hops Harvest Party at Topwire, with possibly one of the finest tap lists I’ve ever had the privilege of attempting to make my way down. Crosby certainly are working with the best of the best.
As an overall reflection of what I learned and soaked in from the week, is that there seems to be a real focus on quality, craft, sustainability and passion in Oregon hops. Oregon’s terroir – with its mineral rich soil from historic flooding – is ideal for agriculture, and the weather is kinder to the plants than in other hop growing areas, with a good amount of natural irrigation during growing seasons then drying out nicely for harvesting. Every single person you encounter who’s associated with hops in Oregon has a deep appreciation for and understanding of their natural environment, which is probably why there are so many Salmon Safe & Global GAP farms here. Oregon lives and breathes hops and craft beer, and this passion shines through in the quality of the finished hops which land with us here.
It was clear from our sensory sessions with the many, many fresh hops we encountered, and from what we could see coming from the fields that 2024 was a good quality, strong harvest. If you’ve got a contract in place for 2024 USA hops from Crosby Hops and Indie Hops then you can certainly look forward to some incredible hops to brew with next year.
One of the many amazing things about our trip was the opportunity to engage directly with the people growing and processing hops. There was a widespread consensus amongst the people we spoke to of a slight slowdown in the domestic US brewing market, which in turn had impacted hop demand. The knock-on effect of this – as we mentioned in or recent Guide to Hop Contracting – has been that fewer acres of hops were strung for the 2024 harvest (down some 18% in the Pacific Northwest). The expectation is that this will continue for the 2025 crop year harvest too. There is a movement towards farmers reducing acreage, and prioritising stringing only specific contracted requests.
To that end, for brewers who favour only the freshest crop year, it would be wise to forecast as best you can and specify your needs, as there won’t be the luxury of hop choice we currently have on spot lists as the market transitions.
That being said, there are some unbelievable recent earlier crop years with a good supply still in circulation, and I would implore brewers to make the most of these wonderful Oregon hops, at a better price point too.
Cheers to everyone we met in Oregon for what was an unforgettable hop harvest 2024!
Want to learn all about the 2024 USA Hop Harvest? Check out our own Dan Rybinski’s insights and highlights from his visit to Portland in September.
Read the 2024 Oregon Hop Harvest Debrief here or at the button below.