Exploring The Frontier of Hop Terroir at Coleman Hop Farms

Terroir,

It’s a word that means many things, especially to the wine industry.  Terroir encompasses soil types, chemistry, cardinal directions, elevation, weather, and so much more.  We’ve known about water profiles from major brewing areas and how they affect beer for quite some time. We also know that subspecies of yeast bring different flavors as evidenced by Belgian ales, German Weisbiers or simply, ales vs. lagers. But, the flavor difference between malts and hops remained a mystery and were really taken on subjective faith.  For years brewers, hop growers and maltsters have claimed that terroir influences the ingredients in our beer, but surprisingly there was no real data, no real evidence to prove what we’ve suspected for a long time. That is until this episode’s guest asked the question and put together a team to empirically prove the world of hop terroir. 

The world has become more homogenized through our global industries and, of course,  the internet. Yet, the concept of terroir still has the power to share local identity through our beer.  I hope the knowledge we gain from terroir studies like this will help us regain a sense of individual place.