For the last few weeks, pedestrians in downtown Yakima may feel like they’re in the epicenter of an unofficial beer convention.
At the bar of the Yakima Sports Center, you can hear craft beer makers, beer ingredient suppliers and hop supplier sales representatives from around the world geek out about their favorite brews while, of course, drinking a pint.
In the last several years, such gatherings have now become tradition during the Yakima Valley’s hop harvest, thanks to the explosive growth of the craft beer sector.
Hops have always been present in beer, but with the high premium these smaller, artisan brewers put in the golden green flower, there has been new attention to the crop and how it’s grown.
“The beer culture has transferred to a hop culture,” said Pete Mahoney, vice-president of supply chain for hop supplier John I. Haas.
Local tourism officials believe this could pave a path to cultivating a full-blown agritourism experience that attract a new crop — pun intended — of visitors to the Yakima Valley.
A decade ago, most Yakima Valley hops, which comprise upward of 75 percent of the U.S. crop, were purchased in large quantities by just a handful of global beer companies like Anheuser-Busch and Coors.
During hop harvest, hop suppliers and growers were more likely to see a handful of purchasing agents who simply wanted to buy the largest amount of hops for the most competitive price possible, Mahoney said.
But that customer base has evolved as the craft brewing segment has grown. As of last year, there were nearly 4,300 breweries nationwide, including 4,225 defined as craft breweries, which the Brewers Association describes as small and independently-owned operations.
Companies like John I. Haas, Hopsteiner and YCH Hops are now working with dozens of breweries — including the brewers themselves — during the hop selection process, which occurs at the same time of harvest, to secure contracts for future hop harvests. The hops being harvested now, for instance, were under contract from brewers as early as 2012.
John I. Haas, for example, has been hosting more than 150 breweries over the last several weeks, Mahoney said.
YCH Hops, a grower-owned hop supplier, hosted 300 home and commercial brewers earlier this month at its Brew & Hop school, which provides a crash course about the hop industry.
And what was a process once conducted in a conference room is now an experience as brewers prefer to visit hop fields and talk to growers.
Breweries and international beer ingredient suppliers — who buy hops to resell to breweries in their home countries — having multiple representatives in town means hundreds of people staying at local hotels and dining at local restaurants this month and through the first part of October.
Four hotels have generated 940 room nights to house these visitors, according to a survey by Yakima Valley Tourism.
While a small fraction of the 500,000 room nights Yakima Valley hotels book annually, it’s still a noteworthy figure considering a relatively short period.
“That’s basically a big convention,” said John Cooper, Yakima Valley Tourism CEO.
Meanwhile, local restaurants have staffed up in anticipation of the extra traffic in the evening hours, when brewers want to wind down after a busy day of work.
Nathan Kollman, manager of the Yakima Sports Center, estimates that beer sales — not surprisingly — double for the four to six weeks brewers and other beer lovers are in town.
“They’re really an awesome and great group of people,” he said. “The brewer community is friendly, fun.”
And it’s a great boost for local breweries too, he said, because most breweries tend to want to try beer made here.
“They always get excited when we have their beer on tap,” he said. “But they’re like, ‘I drink that all the time.’”
And now there are more local brews to choose from as several breweries have opened in the last year. That only enhances the hops’ appeal, Mahoney said.
“You naturally like to enjoy a pint of (local) beer made with Yakima hops,” he said.
But those in the beer business aren’t the only ones geeking out about hops: There has been growing interest from beer lovers who want to learn more about the hops that flavor their favorite beers.
Earlier this month, Paste Magazine, a national arts and entertainment website, posted a hop harvest video with the click-baiting headline “Hop Harvest Porn.”
“Hop growers are expanding to fulfill the needs of these booming breweries,” Graham Averill wrote in the post. “In other words, all is right in the world.”
And yes hop growers are making it “right in the world” with what is expected to be a record Northwest hop harvest of a record 91.8 million pounds, a 50 percent increase from just four years ago.
Being the country’s major hop growing region enables the Yakima Valley to offer an aspect of the beer experience that other major beer regions in the country cannot, said Cooper, the Yakima Valley Tourism CEO.
Yakima Valley Tourism recently updated its craft beverage website to put more attention on hops, including a hop industry history and a field guide to the crop.
“Every town has a lot of breweries, but nobody has this part of the experience as much as we do,” Cooper said.
To further play up that angle, Yakima Valley Tourism printed beer coasters and table signs that said “Enjoyed that brew? You’re welcome.” Those items were then placed in various bars and restaurants in Seattle, Spokane and Olympia.
A major draw for the public will come next week with the Fresh Hop Beer Week, featuring a variety of activities with hop suppliers, hop growers and breweries. That is capped with the annual Fresh Hop Ale Festival, which features beers made with non-dried hops, on Oct. 1.
The festival started out as fundraiser but now has become a bona fide must-attend event for beer fans. Last year’s event attracted several thousand attendees. Sunset Magazine featured the Fresh Hop Ale Festival in its October issue.
But there are logistical challenges that come with efforts to turn the hop harvest into an agritourism experience.
Many growers are just not prepared to accommodate hordes of visitors, especially during the busy harvest, said Ann George, executive director of Hop Growers of America, the Moxee-based trade organization.
She noted that one grower she talked to is doing four tours a day for commercial brewers over two weeks — including on the weekends.
“It makes it difficult to be a tourist-focused activity right now when people are pushing very hard and running 24 hours a day,” George said.
Indeed, Pete Mahoney quips that hop harvest for him and his staff is both the “best time of year” for the opportunities to engage with passionate craft brewers, but also the “worst time of year” given the amount of time needed to process hops.
This process is especially complicated by the fact that craft brewers tend to order hops in smaller batches, which decreases the processing efficiency, he said.
“Our staff is buried,” he said. “We’re running seven days a week; we’re spread very thin.”
Both Yakima Valley Tourism and those in the hop industry, including the Hop Growers of America, want to have more conversation on how to accommodate tourist demand but not at the expense of a safe, successful harvest.
George also acknowledges how passionate craft beer lovers have benefited hop growers.
“It has certainly given the hop growers in the region an opportunity expand, to see some profitability and allow new generations to come back to the farm, opportunities that weren’t there 10 years ago,” she said.
