Itinerary Ideas: Visiting a Hops Farm in Oregon
The 2011 Beer Bloggers Conference in Portland, Oregon, certainly ranks as one of our top road trips of the year. Though the days were spent in sessions – 
admittedly, sometimes accompanied by beer – the nights were lived in the hoptastic splendor of the city some call Beervana.
Getting even a taste of Portland’s beer culture during the three days left only a desire to return for more, but one of the highlights of the August 19-21 weekend was a trip to see the harvesting of the hops at Goschie Farms in the Williamette Valley.
Other beer writers chronicled the event, and there are links to their stories at the bottom of this post, but we wanted to share with you a video we took during the tour and subsequent dinner under the trees on a gorgeous Pacific Northwest evening permeated with the scent of fresh Humulus lupulus, without which beer would not be beer. At the beginning, you can also get a few glimpses of our rush-hour ride to the farms, made much more enjoyable by local brewers on board who shared some samples of their creations.
If you love great beer and ever get the chance to tour a hops farm during one of your Road Trips for Beer, do it! You will not regret it.
See more photos from the tour here.
Read more about BBC11 and the tip to Goschie Farms at these sites:
- Firkin Around: BBC11 – Goschie Hop Farms.
- Seacoast Beverage Labs: Seeing Hops for the First Time.
- The Not So Professional Beer Blog: Hop Harvest at Goschie Farms.
Here are a couple of Pacific Northwest hops farms that are open for visitors. Be sure to call ahead for arrangements.
Puterbaugh Farms
686 Green Valley Road
Mabton, Washington
888-972-3616
Rogue Farms Micro Hopyard 3590 Wigrich Road Independence, Oregon 503-838-9813
Regional breweries and brewer guilds often schedule special tours of hops farms during harvest seasons. Contact the guild local to your destination to see if there is one happening during your planned visit.
If you write about beer or if you are in the industry and want to connect with a community of bloggers whose influence is growing, the 2012 Beer Bloggers Conference will be July 13-15 in Indianapolis, Indiana. For more information, click here.
Gerard! Thanks for this post. That trip was probably the 2nd most memorable event of 2011 for myself, next to my daughters wedding. What a great day we all had, and the Goschie’s were such wonderful hosts. I will remember that day forever.
Thank you too, for linking to my blog post about the trip!
Cheers,
Rick