Yakima Valley Pilgrimage

[pwgibbs]

Happy New Year all!

Last summer, I questioned my mother's logic behind moving from the Seattle area to the Yakima Valley. After spending Christmas week there, however, all is forgiven!!

For those unfamiliar, the Yakima Valley is basically Hop Country USA, and one brewery stands out after my brief trip...Snipes Mountain Brewerey. (http://www.snipesmountain.com) Back to them in a second. Being a relative newbie to homebrewing, I've led myself to believe that whole hops are, without exception, the way to go in homebrewing and have always been disappointed that I cannot get them in Florida. Sigh. Spent a week in the Yakima Valley looking for homebrew shops, finding only ONE, in Prosser, an hour away. A head-scratcher, to be sure, but it is what it is. Fast forward a few days to Snipes Mountain Brewerey. Absolutely AMAZING beer, particularly the Coyote Moon Ale (American Brown) and the brewmaster's experimental 2X IPA (which, at a little over 10%, brought me to my knees!). The brewmaster, Chris Miller, was present and I engaged him in a lengthy discussion regarding whole hops versus pellets and was astonished to learn that, given the readily available supply of whole hops, he uses pellets almost exclusively. He cited several reasons, efficiency being chief among them, which left me with renewed hope that all is not lost for those of us on the east coast! I also discussed with him my frustration with a lack of homebrew shops in the Valley. Long story short, I left with a pretty goodly amount of whole Centennial hops with which to play in the very near future! He warned against taking them on the plane with me (might alert the dogs!) so I shipped them to myself! At the end of the day, it was a very enlightening trip and a very educational discussion with a brewmaster who, I thought, was barely old enough to sample his own product (He looked to be early to mid 20's)!!

For those in or around the Yakima Valley, or those visiting, Snipes Mountain Brewerey is a Don't Miss, and be sure to find Chris the Brewmaster and chat him up!

 

[david_42]

Most pros use pellets most of the time. They take up a lot less storage space.

 

[Pappers_]

Sounds cool! I like to use whole or plug hops, too. If I had a source of fresh hops, I'd use those, also. I don't think they are better than pellets (in fact, I know they are not), just less processed.

My understanding is most commercial breweries uses pellets, for the reasons you stated, plus they just take up less room and are more impervious to variations in storage, environment, etc.

Edit: David and I were typing at the same time yes, what he said ^^

 

[Evan]

that's awesome he gave you a pound of Centennial! sounds like a fun trip.

i use both whole and pellet, mostly pellet. i like the fact they soak up less wort and take up less room in the freezer. but with that said, i do use leaf for dry hopping most of the time.

 

[Bokonon]

Chris is a great guy and he is making some great beer over at Snipes. I think he turned 30 last year.

Snipes has an amazing building and a great menu, its a shame that the location sucks so bad

Yakima doesn't really have any homebrew shops. The local brewers used to drive down to Tri-Cities to Ice Harbor to pickup supplies, but then the local Ace Hardwares started carrying supplies.

 

[alexdagrate]

Yakima reminds me of the "Jamaica" episode of the travel channel TV show "No Reservations" with Anthony Bordain. They tour the Blue Mountain coffee plantations on Jamaica, and despite being surrounded by some of the best coffee in the world, most Jamaicans don't drink coffee.

Despite being one of the largest hop-growing regions in the world, there is a real dearth of breweries in the Yakima valley. I went to Yakima a couple of years ago and saw the corpse of the Bert Grant's brew pub in the old train station. Came damn close to crying.

 

[homebrewer_99]

My wife had relatives in Yakima. We visited there back in the 90s and again probably about 4 years ago.

Here aunts and some cousins have since died, but while there (1st time) we visited some of her cousins in Sunnyside. Once there we started talking beers and homebrewing so the guys (husbands) took me off to one of their friends hop farm where I got some free rhizomes. They're at my SIL's house now.

We also went to Toppenish. It's the home of the American Hop Museum. Very nice place with murals all over town and a story behind each one. The "Indians" harvested hops way back when. I can't recall if it's on or near the reservation.

Did you get a chance to go to Toppenish?

My first time there I drove up from Portland. Where I crossed the river there's a 1/3 size replica of Stonehenge on the hill overlooking the river. I've since been to the real one.

 

[pwgibbs]

"Did you get a chance to go to Toppenish?"

Yeah, I took a drive through the place one afternoon. Looks much the same as it did 10 years ago when I was there last.
ETA: Toppenish is not on the reservation (though it may have been many moons ago?)

As far as the dearth of breweries in the Valley, that has always surprised me as well. I guess the big money is in the wineries? I came home with two bottles of Zillah Gorilla from Hyatt - a gift from my mother. The joke behind that is: My mother moved to Zillah last summer and my twin brother instantly dubbed her "MomZillah". Kinda stuck.

Don't remember the brewpub in the train station, but I was last there in another life (Ex-Wife lives in Union Gap), before I became a Beer-Snob!

Cheers.

 

[humann_brewing]

I have had a lunch a beer at Snipes and was very impressed with their setup and beer. I didn't get to talk to the brewer though, so way to go

 

[EMPyre]

Yakima Craft Brewing has been putting out some nice stuff as of late, as has Iron Horse located ~30 miles north in Ellensburg. Roslynn, while technically at the top of the valley, but more in the mountains than anything has a couple of nice brews too. It is surprising how few breweries there are in the valley, but the region does like its brew. There are at least 3 substanstial brewfest each year in Yakima and Ellensburg, including a fresh hop ale fest in September. Pretty cool to see some good sized brewers making a special batch with 24 hour old fresh picked hops.