The study of terroir as it relates to the grapes in a vineyard and the effects it carries over to wine has been well documented. But what about the terroir as it relates to hops and its finished product beer?

To start, we’ll examine a “first-of-it’s-kind” study, just released last week, that was undertaken by Coleman Agriculture (the largest hop grower in Oregon) and Oregon State University over the past year. Their goal? Correlate the terroir (ter-whar) in which hops are grown with the attributes they possess when harvested, or more simply, “does terroir affect hops?”

Hops ready to be harvested:
Today we step away from the hard news of craft beer and talk about something fun. You need to read this article from the Capital Press in Oregon about terroir in hops.

Around the world, vintners already know how a region's climate, soils and farming practices — collectively known as "terroir" — can influence the character of winegrapes. But what about beer? Are the same factors responsible for driving subtle yet distinctive changes in hops?

Yakima Chief Hops Corporate Social Responsibility Coordinator, Levi Wyatt, recently took a tour of the Oregon hop and brewing communities, visiting family hop farms and regional breweries throughout the state.

After a long off-season slumber, one of the hottest hop varieties on the market is beginning its ascent into the overhead lines from which they'll be harvested late this summer. 

Innovation is key for Oregon’s largest hop-growing operation. In 2014, Drew Bell with Coleman Ag recognized the need to start collecting farm records electronically and in the field, by the people performing the actual applications, instead of behind a desktop in an office.

Know your Hop Farmer. That’s what we believe. Wolf Picker, named after the classic hop harvesting rig, celebrates our decades-long relationships with hop farmers, and our obsession with new talent in the world of experimental hops.

Some old-line Oregon farm families are making the switch. Coleman Agriculture in Gervais, which has been around for decades, has formed a new company, SweetSoil, to pursue the hemp business. They replaced 17 acres of grass seed land with hemp last year and will plant 100 acres of hemp in 2019.

From hops to hazelnuts to seed crops and a variety of vegetables, for the Coleman family, farming has always been more than a livelihood – it’s a way of life.

Oregonians love their beer — something that wouldn't be possible without hop farmers who are in the middle of the season.

Some things are beyond a single farmer’s control: Global markets are among them. In 2008, Anheuser-Busch, the beer giant, and longtime Coleman hop farms client, merged with InBev, an international brewing company. Coleman was left holding the bag, literally. 

Coleman Agriculture, based in Gervais, OR, has hired David Henze as its new president. Henze comes to Coleman Ag with over 20 years of experience in the food and agriculture industry in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

Coleman Agriculture’s hop fields and dryers are a good example of a company that in using both simple and more complicated technology to improve their product without increasing costs, energy, water or employee resources.

John Coleman is a hop grower based in St. Paul, Oregon. He manages the hops and perennial crops for Coleman Ag, a large family-run company. In his interview, Coleman talks about growing up in St. Paul, working on the farm, and attending OSU in the 1980s.

This farm visit was by far the best smelling visit I have ever done. Mmmmmm… hops: smells like beer. I’ll talk about agriculture just about anywhere, but (no offense to the dairies and the sheep farms I visited) hands down, talking about beer in a hop house takes the cake.

To visitors, the Hopyard appears to be owned and operated by Rogue Brewery for the production of its own product. The farm is actually the result of a partnership between Rogue and Coleman Family Farms; the sixth generation of a family of Willamette Valley Dutch Catholic farmers.