I am just placing a hop order for over $100 for the same hops I would paid half that for a few years and gotten FREE back in the early 2000's.. I was employed with the Washington State Department Of Agriculture as a Hop Inspector.. My job was to go out and take core samples of the various "lots" of HOPS that came out of the Yakima Valley and to bring them into be tested for moisture and seed %, stuff like that... Man, those were the days.. On a typical day I could seriously and literally take home dozens of ounces of dozens of different type of hop.. I had more Hops than GOD! I did that for two summers, and made all kinds of brews for those two years.. In fact, I remember testing "Warrior" from Yakima Chief Ranches before it was even officially released.. I may have been one of the first people to brew with Warrior, though I really have no idea. It was homebrewer heaven... but then we moved to the other side of the state, and I fell out of homebrewing for 7 or 8 years.. The wife made me throw away the hops.. she was already pissed that I had ruined our Subaru from hauling those samples of hops from the ranches to the lab every day... I still have that car and to this day it still smells like hops..
interestingly, after my hop gig, I came back to college at Washington State and worked in the barley breeding program for 4 years.. If I want it, the researcher says he will plant me as much malting barley as I want.. Now if I could just figure out how to malt it effectively at home.... so in a nutshell, I have worked in both hops and barley, and still can't seem to brew a decent porter.. Go figure...
interestingly, after my hop gig, I came back to college at Washington State and worked in the barley breeding program for 4 years.. If I want it, the researcher says he will plant me as much malting barley as I want.. Now if I could just figure out how to malt it effectively at home.... so in a nutshell, I have worked in both hops and barley, and still can't seem to brew a decent porter.. Go figure...
