Odell Brewing

The man who would grow hops

Things you would not have seen twenty years ago:

– A “multimedia web narrative” created by college students.
– Farmers in Colorado growing hops.
– A Colorado brewery making a “fresh hop beer” — that is using hops taken directly from the bine.

The project is called “Hop to Sip” and the website promises regular updates between now and harvest in August, when Odell Brewing will produce a beer with Crystal hops grown in the Colorado Gold Hop Yard. It is a collaboration of stories from the Rocky Mountain Collegian, CTV, KCSU, and College Avenue at Colorado State University.

I’m already thinking I’d like to have that beer Odell is brewing with Larry Leinhart, the farmer in the video. He worked for both Pabst Brewing and Anheuser-Busch.

Colorado breweries fund organic hops research

New Belgium Brewing has awarded a $20,000 grant to a Colorado State graduate student to further her research on growing organic hops in Colorado.

Odell Brewing — located in Fort Collins like New Belgium and CSU — has been supporting Ali Hamm’s work for several years.

Hamm’s plan is to figure out what kinds of hops grow best under organic conditions in Colorado. “Nobody thinks about growing hops in Colorado – well, not until this year,” Hamm said.

New Belgium currently uses organic hops from New Zealand in its organic Mothership Wit, and obviously would like to be able to use some that aren’t shipped half way around the world.