When Hops Go High Tech | SevenFifty Daily

America is not a nation of great nuance. We like loud music, louder cars, and pumpkin spice lattes. Intensities attract attention, which is a guiding principle for the country’s approach to IPA production.

As the price of raw materials, labor, and utilities increase, breweries are rethinking their more-is-better approach. “We’re way past the heyday of craft where you can hop with 10 pounds per barrel and lose 50 percent of your beer,” says Phillip Chou, the director of brewing solutions for John I. Haas, a hop products supplier in Yakima, Washington. 

Breweries seeking cost savings, increased yield, and intense aromas in their IPAs are turning to a growing number of high-tech innovations. “There’s been a huge acceleration in the space of efficiency,” says Blake Crosby, the CEO of Crosby Hops in Woodburn, Oregon. “It’s a little bit of the Wild West.”

For SevenFifty Daily, I explore the fast-evolving frontier of science and hoppy beer.