Gayle Goschie, whose family started stringing hops in the Willamette Valley in 1905, first met Larry Sidor in 2007. The farm was hosting a reception for those attending a conference at nearby Oregon State University.
Goschie was growing the first hops to be certified as Salmon-Safe—meaning that they were raised following ecologically sustainable practices, helping to ensure clean rivers in the region. Sidor, who was then the brewmaster at Deschutes in Bend, ended up including those hops in a beer.
But that wasn’t the only reason the moment was auspicious for Goschie.
“For the first time in our family’s history, I had an opportunity to have a brewer sit down at the table and see them react to the hops I grew, to give me those real-life reactions,” she says. “It’s extremely important. Most of us want to have the interaction—to identify what has been successful, [or] if there is an example of what we can tweak.
“I realized we can have those interactions between a brewer and grower,” she says, thus forming “a true partnership.”
Change was afoot. “Dealers didn’t want us talking to brewers,” says Diane Gooding at Gooding Farms in Parma, Idaho. “It’s kind of night and day, then and now. A lot more communication, connection. And a lot of friendships. A better sense of community.”
For growers, those interactions have become common. Among brewers, it’s a much smaller percentage who get to know the farmers who grow the hops they use. However, even those who may never visit a farm in the Pacific Northwest can still benefit from what growers have learned from brewers, and what brewers have learned from farmers.