Pioneers in Hops Heaven

According to Puterbaugh family legends, their ancestor, Noel Charvet, moved to the Yakima Valley to start a hop farm after receiving a note from a relative in the area claiming that they had "found the land of milk and honey." In 1932, he began the family farm outside of Mabton, and it has remained in the family ever since.

Drew and Levi Puterbaugh are the latest generation to take on the family legacy, growing quality hops alongside their father, Stacy, in the heat of the Yakima Valley. Their days are filled with planting, tending, harvesting, and drying — using many of the same methods and tools that were pioneered by their father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. Unlike their predecessors, though, the brothers have a new wrinkle to deal with: in addition to growing the hops, they also run HopsDirect.com, which has functioned as the merchant side of the family farm since 1997. The foresight of their mother, Diana, allowed the family to blaze a trail on the World Wide Web, and the website has grown into a major player in the direct-to-consumer hops market, with thousands of unique visitors each month. By handling both the growing and the distribution, the family is able to cut out the proverbial middleman between them and the customer.

"We're growing 19 varieties (of hops), and they're all wonderful, and people love all of them," said Drew, noting that all 19 varieties are available on the site. "It's kind of like children — you can't pick a favorite, but there are a couple that rise to the top."

Even if Drew can't play favorites, most of their customers online do. The Puterbaughs have been directly supplying brewers and beer makers around the country for decades, and customers come to them again and again to order their high-quality hops, extracts, and pellets. The Puterbaughs are famous in the hops world for developing the Belma™ variety of hops, which is a favorite among brewers for its bright, fruity flavor and versatility.

The Yakima Valley in southern Washington is the "promised land" of growing hops in the United States, accounting for most of the hops grown in Washington, which, in turn, grows nearly 75% of all the hops in the nation. Ideal growing conditions and technically advanced processing plants make it possible for farmers to produce high-quality hops at a lower cost than anywhere else in the world.

But that ideal climate and technology would be nothing without the experience of the farmers. Hops have to be picked at the perfect dryness. Farmers shoot for a moisture content of around 8-10%, but harvest waits until the cones are dry enough to pass the feel test. According to the Puterbaughs, the cones are ready to pick when they sound crinkly and the green core (called the strig) feels papery rather than rubbery.

"There's a lot of 'feel' aspect to it," said Drew. "There's some nuance to drying, which makes it one of the more important jobs on the farm. You can work all year and then mess up on the drying and not have a quality product."

Once the hops are harvested, they're brought into one of the family's processing facilities, where they're first dried out even further with fans and hot air. After they reach the right moisture content, the hops are processed in one of three ways: some customers prefer to buy the kiln-dried hop leaf (the most classic way to brew), while others prefer the more modern pellets or hop extracts (made with alpha acids and essential oils).

"On a good day, the whole operation is a beautiful thing," said Drew. "Poetry in motion, and there are no two days alike."