Howdy all! As you've probably already seen if you follow us on our various social media channels (and if you don't, you should! That way you'll have multiple different websites informing you every time we write a new blog post! And not much else!), late last week, Jared and Jimbo got a special treat just for doing what they like to do (which in this case was supporting a local* business) - a day at a hop farm!
To quote our lovely hosts: there's nothing quite like a hop yard in full bloom!
 Some of this here Nugget's gonna end up in our beer. This is also where we get our Cascade and Magnum (and Rakau if we can get our grubby little paws on any). |  LOOK HOW BIG THEM HOP CONES ARE look at them |
Yessir, the folks at Four Star Farms had a field day and invited a bunch of their customers** out for it. And oh man, what a day! We got a tour of their hop yards where we got to walk around (i.e. scamper like excited children) amongst the bines and pick off fresh hop cones and do that thing you always see in beer commercials where the brewer rubs the hops together in his hands and then smells them (note: this isn't as effective if you've recently gotten jelly all over your hands).
Lovely luscious lupulins. So many smells.
But it wasn't all prancing around in a wet field - we got us some education too! In addition to a history of the farm, some details on how hops are grown, and an oddly impassioned speech about dirt,*** we got to see hop processing in action! Words can hardly do it justice, but suffice to say it involves machetes and some seriously terrifying-looking machinery (not at the same time).
We missed the machete photo op, but this part is still pretty badass.
Hop pickers are fucking mesmerizing. And large. And loud.
The Four Star Farmers reapin' the good stuff. That, and gears!
Speaking of which, I know that me rambling about hop yards can hardly convey how cool this stuff is, nor will it do justice to the hospitality**** the L'Etoile family showed us... so we'll try and recreate the experience for you the only way we know how - by using the magic of blurry photos we took with the shitty cameras on our phones!
A Good Day!
*I guess it depends on how strongly you define "local," but it's a hell of a lot closer than Yakima Valley.
**We were a little concerned that we might look like chumps because we work for a brewery that doesn't currently "produce beer" at the moment, but there were a lot of "up and coming" breweries present and we met plenty of friendly folks. Good times!
***Gene, the patriarch of the farm (it's a family run business, which is pretty damned cool), seemed to be very proud of the dirt they have. I kind of hope that's a big point of pride among farmers and when they get together they like to brag about who has better dirt.
****They even made us lunch! I didn't know curried goat was even a thing until last Friday and now it's all I can think about.
**We were a little concerned that we might look like chumps because we work for a brewery that doesn't currently "produce beer" at the moment, but there were a lot of "up and coming" breweries present and we met plenty of friendly folks. Good times!
***Gene, the patriarch of the farm (it's a family run business, which is pretty damned cool), seemed to be very proud of the dirt they have. I kind of hope that's a big point of pride among farmers and when they get together they like to brag about who has better dirt.
****They even made us lunch! I didn't know curried goat was even a thing until last Friday and now it's all I can think about.
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