YAKIMA COUNTY, Wash.- Hop harvest season is closing in for the Yakima Valley. 30% of the world gets their hops from the region, which produced nearly $420 million in revenue for 2023, according to the Washington State Hops Commission.
But with wildfires burning across the region and smoke rolling through the valley, brewers may end up with a smokier flavor than intended.
“Smoke taint is a complex phenomenon that permeates throughout all the Pacific Northwest growing regions in the past several years,” says Maggie Elliot, Science and Communications Director for the Hops Commission.
Elliot says the “phenomenon” is a fairly recent development, with the term “smoke taint” first coined in 2020.
When hop fields and brewers got their first batches of hops, they tasted something closer to beef jerky and hot dogs rather than the fruity, earthy aroma intended.
“I was like, ‘why are we smelling this?'” recalls Tessa Schilaty with Yakima Chief Hops. “It became pretty clear pretty quickly that, yeah, [smoke] was definitely in some of the hops, and we were just like, what are we going to do?”
No batches were thrown out in 2020, but brewers, fields and researchers came together to get to the bottom of it.
“The brewing industry is investigating numerous different avenues and being able to sift some of these hops in their supply chain and be able to make use of these hops because there will be there are there have been a considerable quantity of hops that are otherwise thrown away,” says Elliot.
One of the ways discovered is known as the “hop slurry” method. After harvesting, cones will be grinded up and added to a water and ethanol solution. Smoke taint compounds would dissolve into the water, showing their presence.
“Beer is mostly water,” says Schilaty. “That’s why they’re getting into beer. Adding that water component to the process helps kind of lift those aromas out so that we were making really sure that if something was smoke tainted, we were going to catch it.”
Without the hop slurry method, it’s harder to find smoke tainted hops. Oftentimes, it doesn’t show up until the taste test.
Some growers have found a way around the smokiness when harvesting, according to the Hops Commission. If conditions allow, smokey hops may be avoidable by waiting for a clear sky.
“If the air quality outside is relatively poor, then that can impart some quality challenges,” says Elliot. “It’s during that we need so dense periods of smoke during that very particular time. And harvest is where we’re going to see some smoke issues that that occurs.”
Elliot explains it’s the drying process during the harvest where hops may be tainted.
After being picked and sifted, hops go into a kiln room to dry. The room has propane heaters with oxygen intakes to fuel those heaters.
That’s where the smoke outside could cling to the hops and change the taste.
Yakima Chief Hops says they go through extra quality control when the Air Quality Index hits 150.
Washington State Hops Commission says most growers start to worry when the AQI hits 250.
According to the Department of Ecology, Yakima has yet to hit the 250 mark. The closest has been 205, two days after the Retreat Fire sparked.
Chief Hops and the commission say it’s too early to tell the condition of the 2024 harvest. However, they say it’s unlikely the smoke from the Retreat Fire will impact crops.
If a new fire breaks out closer to the drying process, all signs point to your favorite cold beers tasting as they should.
“We’re feeling like more prepared than ever to deal with it If it does end up being a bad year for smoke,” says Schilaty.
