hopnology: Hop Growing and Brewing for Craft Beer

This is it, folks!  We wanted to call it Hopnology: Endgame but those Disney folks are a litigious bunch.

We talked about the fact that we should talk about it for a loooong time.  Then we finally talked about it.

When there isn't a plan and you ride the wave, where can your new business take you?

All that hard work in the field, precision drying, and then you store the hops in a garbage bag with a chip clip?

Our first foray into the Pelletizing process.  Not just the How, but also the Why.

This was a fun “what if” episode.  If you could have anything in your hopyard, what would it be?  You'll be surprised at the pain points that come up early.

What's more fun than watching James fight with people online?  Listening to him fight with a computer.

We're on a Sciency Science roll and this week it's about thiols.  More of the magic that exists in your hops if you only know where to look.

There are so many variables in your yard, and they all work in tandem with each other.  That's why the answer is so often “it depends”.  What does it depend *on* though? Two new episodes in a row?  Hmm.  That's curious…..

The latest issue gave us a treasure trove of topics, including gluten free brewing, non-beer products from breweries, and Gregg's favorite topic of “pumpkin” beer.

For many many many years we've talked about low temperature drying in order to retain the hop characteristics that we're growing these things for in the first place.  We did what we do, which is to Science It for an answer.  Guess what happened?

Such a fun episode, reflecting on all of our observations of watching hop growers try to sell to breweries.

It was the episode that launched a thousand future rants.  When to know when to change.

A counterpoint to the NA boom and what to look for in “hop experts”.

Harvested, dried and pelletized.  Now what do you do with them?

A deep dive into harvesters, and a look back to Gregg's first major rant.

We say goodbye to Vermont legend Ray McNeil.  Then, how to resist the Bright and Shiny allure of new hopyard tools – or maybe they're just toys?

More listener mail!  Sprayers, tractors and other fun toys.

When don't brewers want to buy your hops?  When they are navigating hundreds (thousands?) of drunken consumers at a beer festival.

It depends.  It depends.  It depends.  You get it.

We were complaining about IPAs before complaining about IPAs was the cool thing to do.  James and Gregg: Trendsetters.

On another “We read it so you don't have to” we leaf through the latest New Brewer.  Topics on tap include non-IPA breweries, craft beer in Mexico and a deep dive into employee burnout.

When the next season rolls around you can just plug your Wolf in and get back to work.  All of your tools will be just where you left them and you can pick up where you left off, right?  Wrong.  So, so, wrong.

This was our attempt to put James into a VR field walk simulation where every corner reveals another hops horror story.

Mother Nature is….inevitable!

If you can make it through the first six minutes of meandering there is actually a point at the end of the rainbow.  What can we look at in the rear-view mirror and comfortably say we would have done it differently?  Plus, printing the internet.

As if running a hop farm isn't busy enough, how do you handle the looky-loos who stop by “because beer is cool” as well as legitimate potential customers who want to see how the sausage is made?

The French soil pixies are here! It's a science-heavy week as we talk about all things water.

Gregg's mad.  To be fair, this topic has always made him mad.  What is Organic and why won't we do it right?

If you can put up with Gregg's coughing this is your entry point into brewer conversations.  Don't know anything about brewing but you're selling ingredients to brewers?  This is for you!

We rant on other folks' rants.  Topics include the WeWork-ization of pubs and hiring bias.

Weed pressure leads to disease pressure; fall behind on your weeding and you're in trouble.  In this early episode we talk about the ramifications of poor hopyard maintenance.

New episode!  A peek into our Discord server with Q&A from the Hopnologist crew.

In contrast to our first brewery interview with established Vintage, this time we talk to Reverie Brewing a short eight weeks after they opened their doors.  

When is it time to train your hops?  Brace yourselves…..it depends!

Craft brewery sales, IPAs taking over entire product lines and sourcing issues.  We're back with another new episode!

Our first “Top X” list, which is really more of what *not* to do.

Number Two!  Last week was drying science, now we get into the hardware and how to put your drying plan into practice.

It's a podcast, and it's glorious.  The science behind drying your hops.

My favorite episode title ever.  Juicy, Dank, and other sensory science buzzwords to help you speak to your brewers.

What to look for when you're sourcing your plants and/or rhizomes.

Another early interview as we dive into trellis infrastructure.

Our first interview episode, with Scott Manning of Vintage Brewing Company.  We test many things this time around, including in-person recording, Beer ‘er No and Beer the Name.

Episode #171!  For the first time since starting Hopnology we found ourselves on the same side of the microphone.

Quality as it relates to getting your products into the Brewer's hands, and I think the first appearance of “hops in a garbage bag”.

Early days and we were still trying to get all of our words out without it being a garden hose.  It's a Critical episode!

Growers and Brewers, sitting in a tree.  Trying to make an IPA that doesn't smell like cat pee-pee. Not one of my best poems, but you get the idea.

Everything old is new again: welcome back to original Hopnology for the first time.  What?