Indie Hops Flavor Project
image sourced from Indie Hops Flavor Project
About Indie Hops Flavor Project
In 2008, the hop industry didn’t give much thought to craft breweries. Global brewing companies dominated beer markets, and even craft breweries were largely fueled by hop scraps that fell from global brewery selection tables.
We were in Oregon, and craft breweries had already become important to most communities here. It felt like a cultural movement, and state by state protectionist laws were faltering under the will of the people. Craft would spread, we believed, and they’d need their own hops.
Roger majored in law at UT in Austin, with a minor in Shiner Bock. Jim majored in Anchor Steam at Stanford, with a minor in Economics. In the ’70s, we were snot-nosed kids in Corvallis, Oregon sneaking into Oregon State events and running from the campus police. Was it possible that we could supply Oregon hops to the craft beer industry, and maybe even get OSU involved? We had the combined experience and resources to give it a go, so we did.
We took three major steps in the very beginning:
We struck an agreement with OSU where we funded a hop breeding and research effort that would feed new genetic material into our own hop development program.
We also built Oregon’s first hop pellet mill, engineered for the craft market.
We established relationships with two outstanding Oregon hop growers.
And so we set out to be hop suppliers to craft breweries.
Breweries who source their hops from Northwest Hops Farms include…
