I got to spend some time at Hop Head Farms again recently. This time was spent watching Griselda Wolfenstein do what it does best; process hops. Aside from being a great place for hops, the Steinmans planned to make their farm a processing center for other area hop growers. This is a great advantage to smaller farms considering the high cost of hop picking machinery. The hops in question on this day were from Lyle Schmidt at Michigan Organic Hops and were destined for New Holland Brewing.
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Griselda Wolfenstein
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| Hops before |
At this point here, the hops are ready for use in a fresh hop beer. The other option would be to place the hops in an oast to dry. Once dried they can either be pelletised (more often than not) or be used as whole leaf hops.
Time for a pint...
Very cool. I'd love to follow along as the hops are picked all the way through processing one day.
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