And you can't have beer without hops. Business is branching out Anyone who has ever enjoyed a beer should appreciate the farms where the flavor starts. The early work in the fields still requires more manpower than machinery, more backaches than backhoes. New sprouts on each plant must be wound by hand around twine to begin vines that will grow 18 feet toward the sun. Buildings where farmers processed hops 50 years ago are still part of the landscape.
Hop farms are mostly family operations because it's so expensive to get started in the business.
Desserault Ranch grows 10 of the valley's 17 varieties of hops, the bittering agent that balances the sweetness of malt in beer. He's been in charge of the ranch for six years. His grandfather, Al Desserault, now 86, was a cattle farmer when he planted his first rows of hops in the 1950s. Mick Desserault points to the white house across the road from the fields. It's where his father, Ken, grew up.