Washington Hop Quarantine

Thanks to another stupid rule, I'm finding it hard to buy rhizomes online with shipping to WA prohibited, even from Oregon. Any Washington brewers out there who know where to get good rhizomes? Perhaps growers in Washington.

I'm in Seattle.

thanks

They have them at my LHBS every late winter - early spring.

mendozer said:

Thanks to another stupid rule, I'm finding it hard to buy rhizomes online with shipping to WA prohibited, even from Oregon. Any Washington brewers out there who know where to get good rhizomes? Perhaps growers in Washington.

I'm in Seattle.

thanks

Click to expand...

Sure. Get them straight from the Yakima Valley:

http://www.rnventerprises.com/

http://www.hopsdirect.com/info/faq.html

Of course they won't be selling/shipping anything 'til March (or later, it depends on the weather)

sweet. I just contacted the Olsons

This will be my first year growing hops so I put in a pre-order at my LHBS in Kirkland, WA. I tried to buy some last year online but I ran into the "no rhizomes to WA" crap so that's why I bought local.

Here's the link they sent me in their email.

No financial interests in the above link.

I just ordered mine today from Mountain Homebrew in Kirkland. I also ordered last year from Midwest and had no problems with the rhizomes being shipped to me.

I ordered some at larry's yesterday, I think most lhbs have them

Thanks for the info. I think i'll get some from that yakima place. Also, i just found out that my sister's coworker's dad runs a hop farm so i'm going to score some from him too.

i know its because of disease resistance or whatever but if they tolerance in Oregon or Cali, then why not here? They can selectively breed for genetic tolerance towards those pests (or whatever the quarantine is against)

mendozer said:

i know its because of disease resistance or whatever but if they tolerance in Oregon or Cali, then why not here? They can selectively breed for genetic tolerance towards those pests (or whatever the quarantine is against)

Click to expand...

It isn't that easy. If you can actually breed a hop plant that is resistant to some disease, you change other characteristics of the plant and the flavor of the hop. That is IF you can get there with selective breeding.

There are food quarantines in California... fruit flies... a minor pest in a midwest supermarket... a natural disaster in an orange orchard.

Look at it this way: At least you can buy locally, and the local varieties are likely to be the ones that grow best in your climate.

that's true; i like to support local farms anyway. I'll look at it as "forced community support". Everyone wins

rniles said:

http://www.rnventerprises.com/

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Cool, RNV has Horizon. I've always wanted to grow some since it's high alpha acid but low in cohumulone. :rockin:

By the numbers at least it appears to be the closest thing to Simcoe a person can grow on their own.

Great info. I am unfamiliar with the quarantine because it hasn't made the news here.

Still curious, though, has this been standard practice for Washington for a while, or is it new since the shortage of the last few years?

jasonsargo said:

I clicked on this thread because I am unfamiliar with the quarantine because it hasn't made the news here, and I thought I would keep up on things a bit.

I am sorry I did. What an unpleasant thread to wake up to.

Still curious, though, has this been standard practice for Washington for a while, or is it new since the shortage of the last few years?

Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with the supply shortage. It is for disease control, and I don't expect it to be lifted anytime soon. There are also restrictions in Oregon and parts of Idaho as well.

Wow. No kidding. Still curious, if someone knows, is it a recent thing, or is it long-standing agricultural practice for that industry/area?

The original quarantine dates back to 1980 and was updated in 1991 relating specifically to Hop stunt viroid, Ilar viruses, Powdery mildew, Verticillium wilt.

Sarcasm not required.

Washington isn't the only state that quarantines. Oregon does as well along with some parts of Idaho.

The reason is that Washington and Oregon are the major hop producers for a good portion of the beer brewed here in the United States for everyone from the local small brewery to big beer (think Coors, Bud, etc).

Pest/Disease management is very hard as it is (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hop_diseases).


The eastern United States used to be the major Hop producer but through disease and a serious of unfortunate events (Prohibition, price drops, etc), the growing of hops slowly moved to the west coast.

The Willamette Valley in Oregon used to produce more hops than in Yakima. That declined in the 1930s as the hops in the Willamette Valley was attacked by Downy Mildew. In Washington State there once was a time when more hops were grown on the west side of the Cascades than on the east side. Disease wiped those west side hop yards out.

In 1997 the Yakima area was strongly attacked by disease (Powdery mildew). That was a very tough year. A very interesting read can be found at: http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/php/review/2008/hop/ and at http://www.hopunion.com/news/microglobe-november1997.html

You can see why the commercial grower are protective. If a disease were to be brought in and wipe out the crop fields then you can imagine what that would do to the beer supply. Everyone from the home brewer to AB would be effected. Disease control is very important.

There are some resistant varieties out there but using only them would make for some very boring beer after a while. Variety is better - and there's no guarantee that even those stay resistant forever.

I hope this helps.

Great info, guys. The more you know...

yeah rnmiles, that was quite a bit of info.