US Hop Harvest 2025

A couple of weeks ago, our Production Director John was lucky enough to be invited by one of our hop suppliers, Barth Haas X, to join them at the US hop harvest! It was a whirlwind few days spent meeting the farmers, intense sensory sessions at the Hops Academy and getting to know the local beer scene – an amazing experience. Over to John, to give us a blow by blow account of a fantastic and educational work trip:

“We flew into Portland, Oregon, where the beer scene is absolutely thriving. It was straight off the plane and into a different kind of flight at Loyal Legion, where there were 100 different beers on tap covering a huge range of styles. This is where we met the Barth Haas team who were our hosts for the week – Ian, Sam, Joanne and Enrico from Barth Haas X, the UK and European arm of the business, plus Melissa from John I. Haas, which is the American side of the company. I was representing one of several breweries on the trip, with my fellow attendees from the UK and Ireland including Lee and Wayne from Brew York, Dan from Radio City, Lally from Polly’s, Cathal from Rascals in Dublin and Harry from Attic – we were also joined by brewers from Serbia, Poland and Italy. A great group of folk who it was a privilege to spend time with.  

Our first full day began at a local café called Grendels for breakfast – watch out for one of these appearing on our Mythical Creatures inspired pumpclips in 2026! We spent this day acclimatising to the new time zone and visiting some of the breweries that use hops grown by Barth Haas. Highlights included a trip to Wayfinder who specialise in brewing lagers, chatting to their incredibly knowledgeable head brewer and tasting their exceptionally clean, true to style beers. My favourite here though, was a delicious West Coast IPA called “Petting Zoo of the Damned”.

Next up we crossed the Columbia river, across the border into Washington State to visit Trapdoor Brewery, where we had opportunity to try beers using traditional hops alongside the same beer brewed using fresh “wet” hops from the recent harvest to taste the difference the alternative methods made. I learned the technique of using a leaf mulcher to help break up the freshly picked hops, in order to infuse the flavour more strongly and get the biggest character possible from them. Also superb was Grains of Wrath – big thanks to Mike for showing us around. Again, lots of lagers of varying styles were on offer, which I thought was a change from my previous trips to the US and was really interesting to see, but also a whole range of IPAs and 100+ Bourbons!

On day 2, we set off on the road to Yakima! This was a long day of travel in classically huge US trucks, taking in some sights on the way, including the spectacular Multnomah Falls. Our lunch stop was Hood River, a beautiful small town which still managed to be home to a vast number of breweries! We visited the fantastic pFriem – a huge operation which did great food (I had the local white salmon) alongside a variety of beers, including their own Kriek, and cider from the local cider farm. The stand out beer for me here was a 2023 Maple Syrup BA Smoked Porter (9.1%) – decadent and delicious. pFriem was the biggest surprise of the trip for me – it looked like a fairly small operation from the taproom, but as we were led on a tour we turned a corner to be greeted by an ENORMOUS brewery producing around 250,000 HL a year, which is over 10 times what we make here at Abbeydale! pFriem are brewing 7 days a week, 7 times a day – simply remarkable.

Continuing on our journey we passed through varied and ever-changing landscapes which felt at times like being on a Wild West movie set. After arriving in Yakima, we were lucky enough to go to Haastoberfest at Haas HQ – a beer festival put on by John I Haas to celebrate the harvest with farmers, brewers and staff. This was a brilliant evening filled with food, games (including a Stein holding competition) and of course the beer was flowing! It was great to meet the farmers and hear their perspective on growing hops. I bumped into our friends Chad and Rebecca from NoDa, as well as seeing Mike from Grains of Wrath after visiting his brewery the day before. To round off the day those still standing were taken to a local saloon bar, The Old Town Pump Saloon, for a bucket of Coors Banquet, some tunes on the jukebox and pool before a very late bedtime.

Day 3 was Hop Knowledge Day and time to go back to school! We were treated to a traditional café breakfast as it was going to be a long day in the classroom. This was actually my 2^nd breakfast of the day and was French Toast so sizeable it was served on 2 plates, with bourbon and maple syrup caramelised peaches and cream, bacon, sausages, eggs and fried potatoes, served alongside a 32oz “cup” of coffee. I skipped lunch that day!! Upon reaching the Haas Innovation Centre we learned all about hop breeding and the varieties grown in the local climate, with deep, rich fertile soils, cold winters and long hot sunny growing seasons (late Feb-November) which are ideal for growing hops (and fruit too – we saw fields and fields full of peaches, oranges and apples!). In late September there were still 12 hours of sun per day with temperatures in the 30s. There isn’t much rain, so irrigation is a crucial part of the work of the hop growers. A lot of this comes from mountain melt water which can be directed from the rivers into a canal system. We learnt that warmer winters over the last 3 years have led to less water availability and farmers are finding it more difficult to access sufficient water to keep their crops healthy. Hop acreages have reduced by 6% this year, and by 31% since 2022 – a considerable decline and indicative of the challenges the farmers are facing.

We also had a Hops Academy Masterclass with experts Jeff and Rikki, where alongside quality assurance (an area of investment for the company) we were taken through hop sensory procedures and the “sensory lexicon” or aroma notes, to calibrate our noses and make sure we were ready for selection, and how to rub hops to most effectively assess their quality. We were reminded also of the importance of making sure we were well hydrated!

Finally, there was a visit to the laboratories and brew plant, where trial varieties of hops can be used to deep dive into the qualities they bring to a beer. This meant there was an an on-site bar too to showcase beers made using these experimental hop varieties – Hoppy Hour in the taproom! We were introduced to a new product called Lupocore, a new blended product to produce consistent hop characters true to varietal style, similar in appearance to a T90 pellet but softer and crumblier, which means it can dissolve more easily and allows a greater surface area for the beer to interact with. We’re looking forward to trying Lupocore out in a future beer!

Before returning to our hotel we paid a trip to Single Hill who make some stunning fresh hop beers. Here they could not only macerate their own wet hops but also pelletise them to add them into their brews. Hops are just so integral to the breweries here; the innovation was really fantastic to see.

That evening we were hosted at the ‘Lupo Lounge event’, in the old Sports Center, where we enjoyed pizza and wings, paired with beers produced using the new Lupocore products.

The next day was hop selection, where our team were responsible for picking out the batches that will be available to all European brewers over the coming year – so no pressure! We assessed 52 batches across 8 different hop varieties, before being given a tour of the state-of-the-art pelleting plant facility. Bales were stored between 0˚C – 1˚C to maintain freshness before being pelletised. It was notable that very few leaf, whole cone hops seem to be used in the US and even for fresh hop beers they were macerated or pelleted.

Whilst in Yakima we were driven around by Dennis in the “Little Hopper” minibus, who safely got us between farms and venues, and even had a cooler full of beers in case we got thirsty on the journeys! We visited Longmire Farm for second lunch (you might see a theme developing to this trip…) as well as trying a “double triple dry hopped” beer – I didn’t manage to work out quite what it was but imagine it was like a 75-minute IPA which was then dry hopped three times. It tasted delicious! We were shown around the hop fields and their processing facilities, which were a mammoth operation and was incredibly interesting, particularly their cone separation and huge drying kilns which allowed for vast flexibility to handle large yields. Once dried to below 10% moisture, the hops were piled up into huge mountains before being packed into bales.

And after all that hard work, it was on to a karaoke night organised by Barth Haas with Yakima Valley Hops – I picked a back-row spot with no microphone. There is a video, but we’ll leave it to your imagination! [Editor: we hear John let out a sterling rendition of Sweet Caroline!] A very fun night cementing new friendships with bar games, music, food, and of course plenty of beer.

Goldings Experimental Farm was our first stop for the morning after, which is where the breeding programmes of the experimental hop varieties take place. Here the emphasis is on seeking out new and interesting aromas and flavours, alongside good yields and disease/environmental resistance. Citra and Mosaic were created here, and there are currently 4000 varieties being cultivated. The hop processing facility would be the envy of hop farmers across the UK, with state-of-the-art equipment, meaning the hops can be treated at an early stage in their development exactly how they would be when in full production. After sampling beers brewed using some of these new varieties (sadly there wasn’t opportunity to try all 4000) and having chance to give feedback on them, we headed to Varietal brewery & taproom for lunch. This was our host Melissa’s husband’s brewery, where we had excellent burgers and beers, including an Imperial Stout for pudding.

Shorthead Brewing was our destination for the evening, just north of Yakima in an area called Tasker – this was my favourite brewery of the trip, a Western saloon style bar full of rugged regulars, built in an old fruit processing plant. We then moved on to Nomad for the farewell dinner of the trip, where we were treated to an absolutely superb tasting menu. A real highlight and a fitting way to round off an amazing few days.  

All too soon it was time to depart Yakima, embarking on a 32-hour journey home via Hood River and Grassland BBQ, plus a final brewery trip to Ferment Brewing, which wasn’t on the official agenda, but when in America…! And finally, back to Portland to say our goodbyes.

Thank you to the whole Barth Haas X and John I Haas teams for inviting us on the trip and for their impeccable, generous hospitality – it was an honour and a privilege to be a part of, assessing and choosing the hops which will be used by the Barth Haas customers throughout Europe.”