The little hops farm continues to grow and learn! Evey year is different, but some things are the same. Since starting the farm in 2017, we have learned a lot, but I think this year was the best for one reason, or actually two.
I am a competitive person, just ask my wife and kids! I grew up playing lots of sports and always trying to out compete the competition. So, when this grow season started I was really hoping to grow enough hops to sell to both of our local breweries, Rapids Brewing and Klockow Brewing.
We have been brewing a beer with Rapids brewing since 2019, the Hoki Saaz. This year we were able to talk to both Darin Jensen (Rapids Brewing) and Andy Klockow (Klockow Brewing) and both agreed that they wanted to do wet hops beer this year.
We were excited with the anticipation of having two beers with both local breweries! So, we had a goal of trying to meet a certain weight of hops for both breweries, and with the way they have been growing the last couple of years we could do it, or so we thought! Mother nature and farming are always uncertain. Just when we thought we had the growing figured out, we didn’t. The summer was dry, and cool for long periods of time. We have an irrigation system, so watering wasn’t an issue, but the cooler days and nights are something we are unable to control. Our yields were cut this year.
With much less hops than we anticipated we had a tough decision, who to sell the hops too. We felt terrible not being able to supply hops to both of the local breweries. So, we reached out to Darin at Rapids Brewing and since we had been brewing a beer with them for so long, I felt this tie to them and loyalty to allow him first right of refusal. Undenounced to me, Darin and Andy had already been talking about the amount of hops we had produced. I am humbled with how these two brewers work together! I had no idea the partnership, respect that these two have for each other! These two talked about how to try and split the hops, but also both realized there wasn’t enough hops to produce two beers. So, they asked me what we wanted to do.
After talking with Darin, we chose to take a 1-year hiatus with the Hoki Saa Beer at Rapids and hoped for a better grow season next year. We are super excited to be having a beer brewed by Andy at Klockow Brewing that should be ready in the next couple of weeks.
We were disappointed in how our grow year but humbled by these two men. They could be super competitive in our small town, but they choose to be supporters of each other! Nothing but respect for each other in a competitive industry.
We are lucky to have two great breweries in town! I know i choose to support both and look forward to having beers at both.
Be on the lookout for a new beer in the next couple weeks from Klockow Brewing!
Craig and Rachel Pierce
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