Blog posts tagged with 'quality'

As harvest begins, so does the proactive shuffling of picking windows to ensure that hops are picked and processed at their ideal maturity levels. While certain varieties may typically mature earlier or later throughout harvest, a series of factors including temperatures and precipitation make those seemingly narrow windows moving targets, pushing growers to constantly shift priorities to measure and hit their dry matter % goals across all varieties to achieve the Perfect Pick.  

A picking window is partly determined by a hop’s dry matter. To determine a hop’s dry matter percentage, you start by weighing your green or “wet” weight (hops picked off the bines and immediately weighed) and dry weight once done(all moisture has been removed from the “wet” cones). Those numbers are then plugged into the equation that will give you a percentage left that’s made up of organic matter, oils, and acids. Typically, a target dry matter result is in the range of 24% - 27% depending on the variety. Things like the aroma profile, and analysis of the oils, and acids may aid in determining picking windows as well – depending on what the brewers are looking for.  

In the weeks leading up to harvest, samples are taken from across multiple spots in a field and then mixed well into one large sample to perform dry matter tests. Growers and processors will follow these results, which will give an idea on maturation timing. For example: “the hops seem to move about a point a week” Meaning the dry matter number increases by a percentage point a week. If your dry matter number is 25% and they are currently at 23% - you have about 2 weeks until the hops are ready to be harvested. Growing practices that took place earlier in the growing season like pruning, planting dates, training dates, chemigation, fertigation, and weather all play their parts in the plants harvest maturation progress. 

This testing aids in helping growers to pivot as necessary to deliver us hops that are Picked Perfect so that we can process at their optimal time to give brewers the best ingredients possible.  

Author:
DJ Tolmie 
Operations Manager, Mill 95  

Finding the best method to ship hops can be a struggle in the warmer months. Carriers get backed up, ETA’s change and guaranteed delivery dates do not seem to exist. At Mill 95, we put so much focus on maintaining the quality of our product, and strive to produce the best quality hop pellet that we can. How do we maintain quality? We perform quality checks at various points in the receiving and production processes and one of the most important things is to keep the product cold. When we receive the hops in bale form they are put into the cooler as quickly as possible, and the same goes for the finished pellets. Our pellets are stored in temperatures ranging from 30-32 degrees Fahrenheit, and our goal is to maintain that quality through delivery to your brewery.  

We conducted an experiment with 3 Floyds Brewing to determine the effects of higher shipping temperatures on the alpha, beta, and HSI of three varieties. The results show a general trend of HSI increasing and alpha acid decreasing (see graphs). Hops shipped at 90 degrees Fahrenheit will lose anywhere from a half to one full percentage point of alpha acids over the course of seven days. With shipping, there are many temperature fluctuations between warehouses, shipping containers, loading docks, etc. Another useful study to show temperature effects is a study conducted by the University of Vermont, Effect of Climate on Packaged Hop Quality.