I was absolutely blown away last year when we did the picking and grin and we had people
having the time of their life.
They've got live music, bands playing there, good food to eat, great beer to drink.
People are picking hops that they're making ways out of the hops, they're just partying
in there.
I'm in a great time.
I mean, it was a lot of fun.
I think this year's going to be bigger and better because everybody's talking about it
already and it's just reading the emails and the stuff that I'm getting just on Facebook
or whatever.
It's amazing.
I'm excited for it.
As I said, it's good for us.
It's good for the brewery.
I think it's good for Minnesota breweries as well and supporting locally grown agriculture.
I mean, Liftbridge kind of has its roots stemming back to 2008, kind of an evolution from home
brewing, a group of friends out of the garage and one thing that kind of from the home brewing
side is also kind of roasting your own, your malt as well as growing your own hops.
This is definitely in line with what Minnesota craft beer and craft beer really holds as
important to them as supporting local economies as well.
I've only been involved in this industry for about four years now.
I've met the owners, I've met the brewmasters and they're all just great people.
I mean, this is one unbelievable industry.
It's a lot of fun and just friendly, nice people.
Well, thank you.
Cheers.
Again, I was really pretty excited to see that somebody's taking on growing hops here
in Minnesota.
I'm doing it organically and boy, what a great opportunity for a brewer to have a developer
relationship with the hop producer in the area looking for a way to kind of bring kind
of that Minnesota spin to Minnesota craft beer.
I firmly believe that a cascade grown in Minnesota is not going to have the same aroma, the same
flavor and the same intensity or anything than one that's grown in Washington, Oregon.
I think you're going to get something indicative to Minnesota, grown in Minnesota, that you
can't get anywhere else in the country.
But even another cascade grown in Minnesota would probably be different than the ones
that George and me have grown here, but it definitely has Minnesota characteristics to
it.
We're pretty fortunate to have quality ingredients, so it's definitely a respect for people that
are growing for us.
Lipbridge Brewery is the major buyer of our hops.
We do a wet hop with them.
That's when we do the harvester.
It's right off the vine, but it's literally three, four hours from the time they're cut
down, they're being put into a beer.
Kind of a style that is formed not too long ago in doing wet hop brews.
The quality just starts to deteriorate fairly readily after they come off the vine, and
so you really either want to incorporate them into a brew or they're dry.
Very happy with the way it's been grown.
This is our second year now working together, and it's getting bigger and better every year.
I'm very excited about this year's harvest and this year's picketing room.
It's also a great opportunity for the people at the brewery, the employees at the brewery
to kind of come up and see the process, where hops are coming from, how they grow.
A lot of people don't know what hops really are until they see them and they pick them
off the vine, so that's really looking forward to this going to be a great time.
George and Leo will bring hops down to the brewery, we'll set up tables and really let
people go at it.
As I said earlier, we have about 200 people that pick it in grinning.
They'll joyfully pick probably over two to maybe two to three hundred pounds, at least
a pound a person.
Freshly picked hops, they'll incorporate kind of a grassy floral character to a beer, which
is pretty unique to fresh hop beers, especially the variety that George and Leo grow, the
cascades.
The unique thing about the fresh hop, the wet hop brew, is what we'll do is we'll add
those very late into the brew, so let the hops steep then for a good 10 minutes or so.
It's not something that you can replicate with dried or pelletized hops, it's a pale
ale, but it'll have that unique characteristic of a wet hop beer.
Have not only a subtle malt sweetness or a malt character to it, but you have this really
pleasant aroma of whether it's a spicy or floral citrus aroma.
Right now we would need to kind of twist George's arm to throw some more hops for us if we're
going to do anything larger than 60 barrels.
Last year we did 30, this year we reduced 60 draft only, and who knows where we'll make
it.
