Equipment Directors log:
These are the voyages of the True Grist HBC. It’s continuing mission to learn anything and everything about beer. Today we ventured out to the hop yards and processing centre of the Tavistock Hop Company. If you were not able to make it out on Saturday I definitely recommend venturing out there to see their operation. Chris, our Education Director, has been hard at work scheduling and planning presentations as well as this field trip. He was also responsible in arranging to have Kyle from Tavistock Hops at our July meeting. I definitely appreciated the effort, thanks Chris.
When we arrived the staff at the farm were already hard at work processing a mountain of Newport hops. The smell was absolutely fantastic.
Newport wet hops were available for purchase by the bag. I personally walked out with a two pound bag.
In addition to their de-steming machine we also got to see the dryer, pellet and mulching machines. On the drying rack there was a batch of Cascade freshly pelleted. Kyle informed us that they do not compress their hops as firmly as they have in the past. The prefer to have them packed looser so they break up easier when using them as dry hops. In addition to harvesting their own crop, Tavistock was also mulching and pelletizing some Chinook hops from another farm.
Finally, whilst battling the rainy weather we did manage to make it out to the field. A tremendous amount of cascade were still on the bines. Again the smell was amazing and the kids sure liked seeing the tractors in action. All said and done it was a great trip even with the rain. Thanks to Tavistock for hosting us and hopefully we can do it again in the future!
