Dirty Jobs - Hop Farm

Over the weekend I saw an episode of Dirty Jobs, and about half the show was dedicated to harvesting hops in Washington. It was a great show. I figured hop growing was somewhat specialized, but watching this show kind of surprised me.

I have yet to find the show online for "Free", but you can get it on iTunes:

Season 3, Episode 20.

The 2nd half of the show is some really nasty tanning work. I have seen a lot of nasty stuff on that show, but that might be the worst.

 

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I caught the show this week. It was pretty cool. I think they were at Hop Union.

that big goat zit was really cool/gross.

B

 

It turns out I have this episode on my DVR. I didn't realize it. I'm watching it now. The place they are at is Loftis Farm. I don't know if it is part of Hop Union.

 

Cool its on now.

 

yup, watching it again now. Mike Rowe is awesome.

 

I thought it interesting that 40 families control about 80% of hop production in the US.

Those hop 'plantations' must be huge!

 

I was sooo wanting something hoppy while i was watching it. But i had just poured a glass of Xtra Stout before I sat down.

It had me day dreaming of what i would do if i had one of those 100 pound bails of cascade hops. I would probably have so much hops in my beer i would turn green.

 

Back about 1994 I was with my wife visiting some of her cousins in Yakima and Sunnyside, WA when the subject of brewing came up. The one husband of the cousin said he had a friend who grew hops and asked if we wanted to "ditch the girls" and go to a hop farm? You already know what I said...

Anywho, he was friends with people on the Loftis farm. We spent about an hour there discussions process and whatnot. They were really very friendly. They also gave me a couple of rhizoms to bring back to IL. They are still going strong over at my SIL house.

We also went to Toppenish. It's a nice small town. It's home of the American Hop Museum. I spent a hour or so in there. They have a bunch of murals throughout the town depicting the Native Americans harvesting hops and other historical subjects. I'd recommend the stop as well as the Reservation to anyone interested in brewing.

 

Yeah, they run 500 acres and up. The cost of building a cleaning/drying shed ($1M+) really makes high volume necessary. My neighbor's Grandfather had 44 acres in hops, but when mechanical harvesting replaced hand-picking, it wasn't enough to be competitive. In Europe, the average hop farm is only 16 acres or so, and hand-harvesting is still the rule.

Every year during Hop Madness, there is a visit to a hop farm.

 

I still get a kick out of that photo.

 

I always thought that picture was Photoshopped. Never realized that such a perfect place could exist on our Earth.

That Dirty Jobs episode received "Save Until I Delete" status on the DVR.

 

I saw that show. Harvesting hops is clearly hard work, but I didn't think it was a very dirty job. Certainly not compared to tanning skins, birthing calves, or cleaning out sewage tanks.

 

I think they are running out of dirty jobs, so they are looking for any difficult jobs.

 

That's true. I guess there are only so many times Mike can stick his arm up an animal's ass/vajina and still make for compelling TV!

 

I would love to watch the hop harvest episode of dirty jobs but I can't seem to find it ANYWHERE on the internet. Can someone help me out and let me know where I can watch it. Thanks All!

 

Pirate it. That's how I saw it online.

Mininova.org.

 

I hope those guys are wearing tight fitting underwear

 

Off flavors

 

Yeah, why are those guys jumping around in my hops!

Now I need to adjust all my recipes for the new "skin and sweat" addition.

 

FYI, according to wikipedia the hops episode is *Season 4, episode 8*. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dirty_Jobs_episodes. I'm going to get it from Netflix.

Season 3, episode 20 is about "Handmade brick maker; cranberry harvesting; cranberry jam, jelly, and syrup maker. "

(I found this thread because someone mentioned the Dirty Jobs hops episode on http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/new-york-times-feature-hop-harvesting-142780/)

 

Where is this episode on Netflix? They have "collections" rather than seasons. I don't see anything about goat skin or hops.

 

Embracing my geekness here...Netflix streams on the XBOX360, Wii, and PS/3. Might need an unlimited membership though. Will check this out soon.