Organic Hop Market Report (November 2012)

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:06:36 -0800

The November 2012 edition of the American Organic Hop Grower Association’s Organic Hop Market Report is now available for download. In this report, you can find information on:

- 2012 Organic Hop Harvest Recap
- Q & A Session with the AOHGA Grower Members
- Member Spotlight on Seven Bridges Cooperative
- Member Spotlight on Peak Organic Brewing Company
- AOHGA Membership

Click here to download a PDF of the report.

Member Spotlight: Seven Bridges Cooperative

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:00:55 -0800

In 1997, Seven Bridges opened its doors as the only certified organic homebrew supply shop in the country. Taking our first steps on a shoestring budget, we have distinguished our cooperative by our affinity for organics. Today, we operate a flourishing local shop in our home town of Santa Cruz, California. Many of our staff double as professional brewers around town, positioning us at the hub of our brewing community.

Transcending our local focus, our passion for the craft has catalyzed our service to brewers across the nation. By way of our online mail order business we have been able to extend our high standards for quality organic ingredients to customers far and wide. Most types of malts, hops, sugars, adjuncts, and even Irish Moss are available organically, and we do our best to carry a wide variety of the available products. Seven Bridges also designs and produces our own line of organic beer kits, including a new recipe for a gluten-free homebrew. On a larger scale we also provide hops and malts to breweries in the United States and Canada (including 2 organic breweries right here in Santa Cruz) who share our dedication to organics. In this way we advance the craft of organic beer.

Politically we have advocated for the mandatory use of organic hops in organic beer. Until recently breweries have been permitted to use non-organic hops in their certified organic beer. Speaking alongside organic farmers at two USDA meetings in 2010, a representative from Seven Bridges helped defend organic beer against non-organic hops. Partly as a result of this tireless lobbying, beginning in 2013, certified organic beer must be brewed with organic hops.

With pride, we remain the only certified all-organic home brew supply shop in the country. From the onset we have always focused on selling exclusively organic products and will continue to do so for the sake of humanity and our environment. Great beer starts with great ingredients, and our passionate staff uses these resources along with their knowledge to continue to promote outstanding organic products.

For more info on Seven Bridges Cooperative and their products, please visit www.breworganic.com

Member Spotlight: Peak Organic Brewing Company

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:00:15 -0800

Peak is a craft brewing company, dedicated to making delicious beer using local, artisan and organic.

With roots in home brewing back in the 90s, brewer Jon Cadoux set about combining his love for beer with an ethic for sustainability. Whenever possible, he would go out and find ingredients from local organic farmers for his homebrews. It was a defining day when Jon discovered that you don’t need to sacrifice flavor for sustainability, but that better ingredients actually made the beer more delicious.

Fortunately it wasn’t hard to find good people on brew days to experiment and enjoy the fruits of their labor. From longtime friends to college buddies, and even his brother, a kinship was forged to share in this quest to make delicious organic beer. Many of those people are still part of the company today.

Gradually, we came up with a name for the moments we all shared over our craft: Peak Experiences. Beers in hand, we found ourselves celebrating the end of a great day outdoors, adventurous past travels, or a favorite meal with friends and family. We liked these moments so much we decided to put Peak Experience photos on all of our packaging. We invite all of you to share your Peak Experiences with us. Send us a shot and you could find yourself on a beer bottle.

Now, brewing out of Portland, Maine, we’re proud to be part of a craft beer renaissance. It’s an exciting time for American craft brewers, who are creating some of the best beers in the world. Peak is contributing to this movement with contemporary takes on traditional styles of beer, and innovative flavors that have never been brewed before. If you read about our beers, you’ll see we love to collaborate with other local purveyors, organic farmers, creative chefs, and like-minded organizations to create a tasty beer in the best way possible.In 2009, Peak helped Maine farmers cultivate commercial hops, the first such harvest since 1880. We take great pride in the fact that these hops were organic.

To this day, our mission at Peak remains simple: to make delicious, creative brews that we can feel good about. We hope you enjoy them and remind you to find time to celebrate the Peak Experiences in your life.

For more on Peak Organic Brewing Company, visit their website at www.peakbrewing.com.
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AOHGA Field Day 2012

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:35:52 -0700

Last week, the AOHGA held a Field Day at Perrault Farms in Toppenish, WA. Attendees had the opportunity to tour the farming operation at Perrault Farms, including the Washington State University variety and cover crop trials. Staff from WSU was there to discuss the trials and answer questions from the group. It was a great opportunity for the farmers to discuss their 2012 organic hop crop and prepare for the upcoming harvest.

To view more the photos from the event, please click here.

Article: What You Should Be Saying About Organic Farming

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 08:02:57 -0700

An article worth reading about organic farming was published in the July 2012 edition of Acres USA:

What You Should Be Saying About Organic Farming
By Joe Pedretti

As the organic industry matures, competition gets more and more fierce. You refine your educational, promotional and marketing strategies, and it becomes more important to create a personalized and descriptive message about your farm and farming system. Every organic farm system plan is unique, and taking the time to craft unique talking points that will resonate with your customers and your community will be a worthwhile exercise...

Click here to read the full article.

USDA NOP Publishes Sunset 2012 Final Rule

Fri, 8 Jun 2012 07:16:33 -0700

On June 7, 2012, the National Organic Program published a final rule renewing over 200 listings on the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances that were scheduled to expire this year. The rule also makes changes to the many substances, including the following rule for hops:

- Effective January 1, 2013, hops, typically used in organic beer production, must be organic.

To view the complete rule published in the Federal Register, click here.

Organic Hop Market Report (May 2012)

Wed, 30 May 2012 08:12:14 -0700

The May 2012 edition of the American Organic Hop Grower Association’s Organic Hop Market Report is now available for download. In this report, you can find information on:

- 2012 Spring Planting Report
- Q & A Session with the AOHGA Grower Members
- Member Spotlight on Wolaver’s Fine Organic Ales
- Member Spotlight on Blue Ridge Hops
- AOHGA Membership

Click here to download a PDF of the report.

Member Spotlight: Wolaver's Fine Organic Ales

Wed, 30 May 2012 08:07:44 -0700

Otter Creek Brewing is one of the larger brewing companies within Vermont. This brewery purchased The Shed Brewery from Stowe, VT and Wolaver's Fine Organic Ales (USDA Certified Organic). Wolaver's was based out of California and the brand sold very well within Vermont, so in 1997 the two companies merged. Now, Wolaver's is produced alongside other Otter Creek beer keeping the tradition of using local and organic ingredients.

In 1997, Wolaver’s became the first USDA-certified organic brewer. At first a satellite brewery, Vermont’s organic lifestyle fit the product that was envisioned, so Otter Creek and Wolaver’s merged. The brewers worked with the organic barley and farmers in the area, and together they created an “organic beer market.” Since 2002, all Wolaver’s Organic and Otter Creek Ales have been brewed in Middlebury, Vermont.

In 2010, we expanded our brewery to meet the increasing demand for our beer while capturing energy efficiencies and maintaining Otter Creek and Wolaver’s award winning commitment to taste and quality. As Mike Gerhart, Brewmaster puts it, “You don’t have to compromise your passion for great beer, in order to promote sound environmental practices. We prove that every day, here at Otter Creek Brewery.”

Our current distribution is in the following states CT, DC, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, or VT.

Why organic? The barley, wheat, and hops in our beers are certified organic by Vermont Organic Farmers, meaning they were grown without using synthetic chemicals, pesticides, or genetic engineering. Using agro-chemicals not only pollutes our water and poses health risks, it also sterilizes the soil. We are proud to use ingredients that have been grown responsibly, with consideration for future generations- and more beers down the road! Why Wolaver's? We buy local ingredients whenever possible. Our brewery uses biodiesel and a free-air cooling system to minimize our impact on the environment. We support sustainable farming and living. Our beers are delicious, fine quality craft beers and we have a wide range of flavors and styles.

To learn more about Otter Creek Brewing Company, please visit www.ottercreekbrewing.com.

Member Spotlight: Blue Ridge Hops

Wed, 30 May 2012 07:57:31 -0700

Blue Ridge Hops is a small family farm, located in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where spectacular long-range views surround the hop yard. Owners John Wright and Rita Pelczar have been growing organic hops since 2008. We gained organic certification in 2009, and joined AOHGA in 2010 because we wanted to help promote the production and use of organic hops.

Establishing the hop yard presented several challenges, not the least of which was the terrain—there was no level land, so our hop yard was sited it on a high meadow with a 30 degree slope. A low trellis system, using farm harvested black locust for posts, was constructed to facilitate harvesting the crop in situ, without cutting down the bines. Whereas most large growers harvest their crop all at once, often with machines, we harvest by hand, over several weeks, selecting cones as they reach their peak maturity leaving younger cones to continue to develop. While this is labor intensive, it maximizes production of quality cones.

Another challenge was finding good information about growing hops in the Southeast, where until recently, little commercial hops has been produced. For the past three years we have worked closely with North Carolina State University’s NC Hops Project (http://nchops.soil.ncsu.edu/), which has research hop yards in Raleigh and nearby Mills River, where varieties are being tested to determine which grow best in the Southeast. Using soil and tissue samples from our hop yard and a few other growers in the area, as well as the two research hop yards, this project has successfully developed nutrient recommendations for growing hops in North Carolina—information that was unavailable to growers just a couple years ago.

With more than a dozen microbreweries within an hour’s drive of the farm, we sell the bulk of our hops fresh (wet) for special seasonal brews—this requires coordinating our harvest with the brew masters’ schedules, and delivery within hours of harvest. Those hops that we don’t sell fresh, we dry on site, the same day they are harvested. The dried whole cones are vacuum-sealed and frozen for sale to home brewers.

Each growing season continues to yield answers to the unique cultural challenges of growing hops in the mountains of Western North Carolina, contributing to the expansion of this crop outside the Pacific Northwest. Blue Ridge Hops anticipates that such expanded production will provide distinctive characteristics particular to specific growing regions, adding ever more options to the brewing art.

To learn more about Blue Ridge Hops, please visit www.blueridgehops.com.

Organic Hop Market Report (December 2011)

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:50:51 -0800

The December 2011 edition of the AOHGA Organic Hop Market Report is now available for download. In this report, you will find information on:

- 2011 Organic Hop Harvest Recap, which includes acres harvested by variety, total pounds produced, and a Q & A with AOHGA growers
- Reminder: Only One Harvest Left Before January 2013
- Member Spotlight on Fremont Brewing Company
- Member Spotlight on Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
- AOHGA Membership

Click here to download a PDF of the report.