Hop & Brew School Podcast

In this episode of the Hop & Brew School® Podcast, Nick Zeigler walks us through all things hop extract. We learn the process of producing hop extracts, as well how to get the most out of using them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Denny Conn, author of Expiremental Brewing and Simple Brewing, and John Palmer, author of How To Brew, join us on this episode of the Hop & Brew School® Podcast to discuss their favorite legacy hops. These are those wonderful hops we still use today in so many craft beers and homebrews, that are less talked about but never forgotten. We are also joined by homebrewer extraordinaire, Nathan Smith, as the entire crew discuss Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, and a few surprised too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the story of how one very special brewer saved one of the world's most popular hops. Listen in as YCH Chief Supply Chain Officer, Steve Carpenter, and Co-Owner and Brewmaster, Vinnie Cilurzo, from Russian River Brewing Company, tell the story of how Simcoe® was saved from being discarded as a hop variety. Along the way, a family farm was also impacted in more ways than anyone knew. It's a touching tale of a hop head's favorite variety that we might not know today if it weren't for a couple of very popular craft brews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Hop & Brew School® Podcast we are joined by Chief Supply Chain Officer, Co-Founder, and Grower-Owner, Steve Carpenter, as well as one of the founding members of Hopunion LLC and former Director of Craft Sales, Ralph Woodall. They take us on a trip down memory lane to discover how Yakima Chief Hops came to be. Both have been in the industry for decades (generations for Steve) and have a unique perspective on how the hop industry became what we know it to be today. Tune in and learn from two of the legends in the hop industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Hop & Brew School® Podcast, we speak with Blaze Ruud, who is the Director of Product Innovation and Key Accounts and Yakima Chief Hops. Blaze has the unique opportunity to work in the field with brewers of all sizes to help develop hopping techniques and product solutions for the entire industry. As part of his research and development, Blaze was a key part of bringing Cryo Hops® to the market and has a lot to share about their use in dry hopping. Tune in and learn about dry hopping techniques at every scale, using Cryo Hops® to maximize your efficiencies, and a rundown of best practices when dry hopping your beer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Hop & Brew School® Podcast, live from HomebrewCon 2019, Corporate Alex joins Justin and Nick to discuss some exciting new ways to explore hops at Yakima Chief. With the recent launch of their all new online store and accompanying smart phone app, Alex explains how searching, researching and ordering hops is easier than ever! We also learn about organic hops at Yakima Chief and the intricate processing required to ensure organic purity. Nick tells us about what hops are available as organic and how you can get them in your craft beer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Hop & Brew School, we are joined by Yakima Chief Hops Chief Supply Chain Officer, Steve Carpenter, live at HomebrewCon 2019, in Providence, RI. Steve is a fifth generation hop farmer in the Yakima Valley and shares his wealth of knowledge about hops with us. We also learn about YCH's Green Chief® internal farm quality and sustainability management program that was developed in 2008 as a collaborative effort to achieve long-term goals in day-to-day farm operations. We learn about how the program was formed to promote and develop strong baselines, guidelines and practices for traceability, harvest food safety, and data collection and reporting. The program now includes more than 25 farms collaborating on environmentally and socially responsible solutions that ensure the ongoing quality and competitiveness of YCH offerings, even if that means rejecting product that does not meet their strict standards. We also learn a little about YCH's newest blend, Cluster Fugget, and Steve's other passion, baseball.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Hop & Brew School® Podcast, Justin Crossley and Nick Zeigler take the show on the road to HomebrewCon in Providence, RI. They are joined by Yakima Chief Hops Chief Executive Officer, Mike Goettl, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Steve Carpenter, and Grower-Owner, Rick Sauve, of Sauve & Son Farms Inc. The guys discuss the very exciting Fresh Hops Program at YCH and the challenges they endure to make sure that only the freshest, just off the vine, hops get into the hands of craft brewers. It's an impressive feat, to say the least. They also discuss what it's like to be a hop farmer producing some of the worlds finest, and most popular hops. Rick even reveals some of the good-natured competition among Yakima Chief's hop farmers to produce the absolute best hops possible. We round out the conversation with a good dose of baseball talk, as Steve and Mike are also hosts of the popular Beer, Baseball & Bines podcast.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Hop & Brew School® Podcast, Nick Zeigler and Justin Crossley take us through the art and science of blending hops. Yakima Chief Hops frequently create their own blends for brewers and breweries, and Nick explains why, when and how this is done. In the process, we learn about how and why you should blend hops for your creations too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Hop & Brew School® Podcast, Nick Zeigler walks us through the process of hop contracting. For years now, the need for brewers to better plan for their craft beer creations to come to life, has included contracting hops well in advance. This not only ensures brewers have what they need on-hand to brew, but also allows farmers and wholesalers to plan through the entire supply chain. With the knowledge he has gained as both a commercial brewer and now at Yakima Chief Hops, Nick describes each step of the process for us and offers a step by step guide to getting the most out of your hop contracts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Hop & Brew School Podcast®, Nick Zeigler and Justin Crossley take questions from our audience and expand on some of the topics we have covered in previous episodes. The discussion begins with a quick rundown of the annual real life Hop & Brew School event that takes place in Yakima, Washington over Labour Day Weekend this year. From there, Nick elaborates on topics such as hop oil fractions, hop creep, diacetyl, American Noble Hops®, and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special episode of the Hop And Brew School® Podcast, Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River Brewing, Jay Goodwin from The Rare Barrel and Charlie Johnson from the Ronin Fermentation Project join us to talk about hops and sour beer! The three great brewing minds mix it up with hosts Nick Zeigler and Justin Crossley and cover the gamut of hop usage in sour and spontaneous fermentation craft beer. They even dive into some some experimental topics, such as whether or not hop creep is enough to bottle condition beer without adding priming sugar. Tune in and learn from the best in this star studded episode of Hop And Brew School! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Hop And Brew School® Podcast, Justin Crossley and Nick Zeigler are joined by the infamous Jason Perrault from Yakima Chief Ranches. Jason and his team at their family farm are responsible for helping to bring many of the most famous and popular hops to market over the years, including brands such as Simcoe®, Mosaic®, Warrior®, Ekuanot®, and more! To help us learn about the life cycle of hops, Jason walks us through what factors hop breeders must take into account and grapple with when developing new hop strains. Things like yield, pest resistance, and even the varying harvest windows of select strains, only begin to scratch the surface during the long life cycle of a new hop being brought to market. Jason dives further into some of the specific varieties that have passed through his program throughout the years, and even gives us a glimpse of what we might expect to see in the future. This episode is a brewers dream if you're looking to understand more about the agricultural lifecycle of your brewing ingredients and how much science, creativity and sheer effort goes into getting them to you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Hop and Brew School® Podcast, Nick Zeigler and Justin Crossley discuss how water chemistry affects hop utilization, bitterness and aroma with our good friend John Palmer, author of How To Brew and Water: A Comprehensive Guide For Brewers. We dive into how pH affects flavor expression on the palette as well as how sulfates and chlorides hale express different flavors in beer. We also cover many of the factors that affect bitterness, including isohumulones, humulinones, hulupones and hop polyphenols. John helps us put it altogether with a discussion on how time and temperature play a heavy role in getting the characters we are looking for in our beers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Hop And Brew School® Podcast, Nick Zeigler and Justin Crossley discuss the mysterious phenomenon of "hop creep", where brewers experience changes in specific gravity, among other things, when dry hopping their beers. Nick walks us through what is happening in solution to cause the "hop creep" effect, including the chemistry behind it. And of course, what would a Hop And Brew School Podcast be without lessons in how to account for it, or even prevent it.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices