What a buzzing week at the Craft Beer Conference (CBC) in Philadelphia! Educational, professional, late nights, early mornings, little sleep and connecting with an industry that talks a universal language across the globe. A huge bonus was seeing familiar faces from the left coast! I met people from all over the US and Japan, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Australia, to name a few. I have never visited the historical city of Philadelphia before, and my hotel was adjacent to Ben Franklin's grave. You know what Ben said, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." I saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and walked on the narrowest and oldest streets in America. And, forget about the Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches, I finally got to run the Rocky Balboa steps!
CBC is not a Beer Festival where breweries sample their finely crafted beers to consumers. Breweries come to attend board meetings, seminars, network, and cruise the exhibit hall for the latest equipment and brewing technologies. Mind you, every aisle hosts a beer station. The conference is also a great social event (a bit too much) with 10,000+ brewing industry professionals enjoying craft brews together throughout the city.
I painstakingly "worked" in the Glacier Hops Ranch booth for 2.5 days. I can't even begin to call it work. Talking to brewers about hops and beer is pretty much everyday conversation...and I loved every single minute! I've worked and attended many trade shows in my day, and the agony of trying to (or not to) make eye contact is sometimes painful. This show was complete opposite. We had a very constant and high volume traffic flow all three days! Brewers were engaging in our three demonstrations...one was the comparison of our Artisan Crafted (low heat kilned) vs high heat kilned hops. So much more aromatic! Second, our propietary hops...Ahhhroma© and Copper©, bittering and aromatic attributes. People were hanging out for long periods of time just talking...and came back with their friends the folllowing days. It was really incredible, and humbling.
I am excited to be hired as the Marketing/Sales Rep for Glacier Hops Ranch and be a part of such a great show and company. What is more exciting is the revolutionary product Glacier Hops Ranch launched at our "coming out party". We are underdogs in the hop world, and without a doubt it was our Montana (big)foot in the door.
We launched a farm fresh distilled hop oil. What is that? Have you heard of Sierra Nevada's Hop Hunter? It is the only beer available today that uses a farm fresh distilled hop oil...as opposed to an extract or the whole hops. It is NOT an extract. Think vanilla extract...it's not as good as pure vanilla. Farm fresh distilled hop oil is the oil that results from taking the fresh harvest...and I am talking fresh...right from the field and steam distilling it to capture as much aromatic oil as possible. It grabs the hop flavor in an oil which is typically only available in the whole cone 24-48 hours after harvest. It's off the charts aromatic, holds a (room temperature) shelf life in years, not days, easy to ship and provides higher yields. Fresh hopped beers are currently only available in the fall..because that is when hops are harvested. And consumers are crazy about them, because they are limited and taste ridiculous.
Farm fresh hop oil is so new we don't even know the dosing rates. We offered samples of our limited supply to brewers for use on their pilot systems in exchange they will give us their feedback. This is so new...brewers will now be able to brew "fresh hopped" beer ALL YEAR LONG, instead of just in the fall, at a fraction of the price and higher yields! The proof was in the pudding watching brewer's reactions. Tom Britz, owner of Glacier Hops Ranch and creator of the farm fresh hop oil, brought the coveted and only vial of our distilled Cascade oil to showcase it at CBC. We spiked it in the beers brought to our booth from the beer stations. Check it out the reactions on Glacier Hops Farm Facebook page.
Well, I think the rest might be history? Stay tuned.
For more information, or a sample, please contact sue@glacierhopsranch.com.
Cheers!
Nick Rigler, here's your weekly beer tip, try the Kolsch, from, Fremont Brewing Company. Light beer. I've never tried it, but it's in your neighborhood...and it's a light beer. Please text me and let me know how you like it. Love you! -Mom