We consider ourselves pretty lucky to have a brewery located directly on our 3rd generation hop farm, where we get a front sea row to all of the incredible hop harvest action. Read on to learn how it all goes down, step by step!
Hop Harvest Process
STEP ONE: the BOTTOMCUTTER
First up in the hop harvest process: The bottomcutter tractor – a piece of farm equipment used for only one month of the year that is crucial to harvesting hops. The bottomcutter drives through each row of hops cutting the base of the plant just above the ground so the bine is hanging suspended from the top wire. Pretty epic name for a beer, eh? 😉
STEP Two: the Topcutter
Second up in the hop harvest process: The topcutter tractor – a piece of farm equipment that cuts the top of the hop bine from the wire. Shortly after the bottomcutter has finished its work, the topcutter follows a hop truck through the row, cutting down each hop bine, while the weavers guide the bine into the bed of the hop truck. Topcutters are the key step in getting the hops from the field and to the picker – sounds like another epic beer name to us!
STEP three: the hop trucks
Every few minutes, hop trucks filled to the brim with fresh hop bines head from the field to the picker at Loftus Ranches. When one full truck leaves, an empty one pulls in to take its place. While it may seem like there are a never ending amount of hop trucks driving around the Moxee area, there are actually only 14 trucks at Loftus Ranches! An entire month straight of non-stop driving to and from hop fields – shout out to all the hop truck drivers!
STEP four: the Picker
Hop trucks arrive at Loftus Ranches and the bines are hand-loaded from the back of the truck into the picker. The leaves and cones are first stripped from the bine, then a series of fans and dribble belts separate the cones from the leaves and the excess plant material is sent to compost. At this step in the process, the cones are ~75% moisture content. Most are sent to a nearby building, but some lucky cones get snatched straight from the picker to be used in fresh hop brews.
STEP five: the kiln
Fresh hop cones are transferred by conveyor belt from the picking machine to the kiln where they are dried to 9-10% moisture content by forcing hot air through the bed of hops. It can take ~8 hours (and a skilled kiln operator!) to get the hops to the perfect moisture level. Drying is an extremely critical step in the harvesting process that preserves the quality of the hops – so we can make the best West Coast IPAs all year long 😉
STEP six: cooling
After the drying process is complete, the hops are sent again by conveyor belt over to the baling room where they are put into massive piles to cool and condition for 24 hours. Yes, this room smells amazing, and we ALWAYS want to dive into these big, beautiful green piles!
STEP seven: baling
In the last step of hop harvest on our farm, the dried hops are transferred into hydraulic balers that compress them into 200lb bales. The bales are then wrapped in burlap and stitched BY HAND (!!!) before leaving for Yakima Chief Hops to be made into pellets or extract for us (and brewers around the world) to use for the next year.
As 4th generation hop farmers, we always dreamed of being able to break our family’s bales (hence “Bale Breaker”) to make beer showcasing our very own homegrown hops. Sounded like a pretty great name for a brewery to us! 🍻