Bringing Hop Harvest to You
As a grower owned company, the harvest season is the heart of Yakima Chief Hops. It’s the time of year when we truly get the opportunity to live and breathe our mission of connecting family hop farms to brewers, as we invite customers from all over the world to join us. It’s a time of openness, transparency, inclusiveness, and celebration. And it’s a special experience that makes beer taste that much better.
With the impacts of COVID-19 being an ongoing and evolving challenge, we have proactively assessed the upcoming events surrounding harvest and Hop & Brew School. We have a responsibility to our local and global communities to make sure we put the safety of our employees, farms, customers and families first. We also know that non-essential travel can place unnecessary financial pressure on breweries that are being hit the hardest.
With our commitment to keeping our brewing partners connected to the family farms that supply their hops, we put our heads together to discover how to bring the harvest season to you.
This year, harvest and Hop & Brew School are going virtual!
Throughout the past few months, our focus as a team has been to find the silver lining in every hurdle. While we can’t invite our customers to the farms and facilities, we’ve decided to invite the world to experience this magical time of year, digitally.
For the first time ever, this virtual harvest experience will be available for free and to the public, bringing beer lovers, homebrewers, and international craft brewers together from all over the world. The silver lining is that everyone across the globe will have the opportunity to witness the labor of love that goes into every pint. And every brewer will have access to the wealth of knowledge it provides.
For those that have never joined us here in the Yakima Valley for harvest, this is a great introduction to the overall process, taking you on a journey from field to pint. And for those that are veteran harvest and Hop & Brew School attendees, we are excited for you to learn about what we and our growers have been doing this past year, from facility updates to new hop varieties.
This comprehensive harvest experience will last the entire month of September and feature:
- Daily harvest updates
- Grower and staff interviews
- Farm and facility tours
- Hop & Brew School presentations
- New hop variety announcements
Harvest is our favorite time of year and a big part of what connects the hop and brewing communities. It is incredibly important to us to maintain the tradition of experiencing it alongside our brewers. While Yakima won’t be the same without our customers crowding the streets this September, we hope that you will join us as we fully intend to make this the best harvest you’ve experienced yet.
Stay tuned for more details on how to join our virtual harvest experience this fall. To subscribe to our mailing list for this event, click here.
If you would like more information, we invite you to join us for a LIVE virtual Q&A with YCH staff members on June 10 at 8 am PST. This webinar will be an open forum to ask any questions regarding this upcoming event.
