261: Hop Development Roundtable with Jason Perrault and Michael Ferguson of HBC

HBC, the Hop Breeding Company, is responsible for developing some of the most compelling hop varieties in contemporary beer—Mosaic, Citra, Talus, and Sabro are just a few of the aroma hops that they’ve developed. But how does a new hop variety come into being, and what drives its development? In this episode, Jason Perrault of Yakima Chief Ranches and Michael Ferguson of John I. Haas, two leading hop breeders in Yakima Valley and the driving forces behind the two-pronged HBC program, talk about what it takes to develop a new hop variety.

They discuss:

• the typical decade-long timeline for developing a new hop variety
• defining objectives for new hops, from agronomic efficiency and yield to aromatic potency
• taking plants from seeds crossed from two promising parents, through single plant, 7 plant, and larger field plantings
• positive and negative selection for desirable and undesirable traits
• evaluating new hops using a consistent base recipe in test brewing
• achieving elite status and finding brewer champions for new varieties

And more.

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