Yakima Chief Hops Welcomes Four New Family Farms to its Ownership
(From left to right) John Coleman of Coleman Ag; Jessica Riel of Double ‘R’ Hop Ranches;
Ben St. Mary of Black Star Ranches; Brenton Roy of Oasis Farms
Yakima Chief Hops (YCH) welcomes four additional family farms to its list of grower-owners, the first time the ownership group has expanded since 2014.
The four new owners and their family farms include: Coleman Agriculture of St. Paul, OR; Double ‘R’ Hop Ranches of Harrah, WA; Black Star Ranches of Moxee, WA; and Oasis Farms of Prosser, WA. This brings YCH’s collective ownership to a total of 15 family farms from across the Pacific Northwest, all with a shared passion for quality, innovation and sustainability.
YCH Chairman of the Board Rich Van Horn states, “On behalf of the Board of Directors we are pleased to welcome these great multi-generational hop-growing families into our ownership group. They are top quality producers and people.”
Yakima Chief Hops and its predecessor organizations were formed 30 years ago by a group of hop growers seeking to directly bridge the gap between farmers and brewers. They strived for greater transparency across the supply chain to ensure that both the hop and brewing industries continued to thrive. Now, as the largest 100% grower-owned global hop supplier, YCH is uniquely positioned to connect multigenerational family hop farms with the world’s finest brewers.
With the addition of four new grower-owners, Yakima Chief Hops hopes to strengthen its support of the global brewing industry. Mike Goettl, CEO for YCH says, “With the growing demand for US aromatic hops we wanted to make sure we could continue to increase our supply of these hops to our customers at a fair price. Growing and processing hops is an expensive business, so by increasing our scale with these new owners we can help spread out our costs to the benefit of our brewing customers.”
Yakima Chief Hops is proud to welcome Coleman Agriculture, Oasis Farms, Black Star Ranches and Double ‘R’ Hop Ranches to the YCH grower owner family, each contributing their own unique heritage and experiences. YCH is excited to help share the story of these family farms, as it continues to invite brewers to learn more about where their hops are sourced.
