Elsewhere bloggers are posting for Session #90 today, but I’m not feeling in a fighting mood.
Instead it seems more timely to show you a few photos from Embudo, New Mexico, because the link I posted yesterday on Twitter to a Smithsonian article about neomexicanus hops sure struck a chord with some people. I’m quoted in the story, but you can pass on that part. And take the headline with a grain of salt (“Will it change the way we think of American beer?”).
Sierra and I visited Todd Bates’ farm six years and 49 weeks ago. We called it a field trip (this was before she escaped our clutches for full-time public school). I wasn’t even committed to write “Brewing With Wheat” at the time, and I sure as heck had no idea I’d end up writing a book about hops. It’s more than a little strange to look back at these photos and think that I’d be explaining neomexicanus hops to people. It might have been simpler had Bates (pictured below) found the hops in Arizona or Colorado. That he cultivated neomexicanus in New Mexico is something of a coincidence, but more on that soon. For now, the photos.
