After several difficult years in the hop industry, there was not much capital to reinvest in operations. In the early 2010s, the quality of hops coming off of Carpenter Ranches was not keeping up with peer farms that had been able to reinvest. The Carpenter family put together a multi-year plan to improve quality, efficiency, and throughput. As brewers visited the farm each year, pressure to improve facilities and quality mounted, and when the Carpenter family was able to deploy the capital needed to make the jump, they went all in. Over a two-year period, they invested millions of dollars in new kilns, cooling rooms, and cold storage that would catapult them into the upper levels of quality in the Yakima Chief supply chain. In addition to facility reinvestments, they have also invested heavily in new picking technology that will dramatically improve efficiency and quality on the farm. “Without the returns that are provided from Yakima Chief, we wouldn’t be able to invest in the quality that we have,” says Brad Carpenter, owner of Carpenter Ranches. “With the relationships we have with brewers, and with those returns, we can think about how to improve every day to support those that use our products.” He added, “It is so satisfying to drink a great-tasting product that is brewed with our hops.”
In 2018, the first year with their new kilning operation on line, Carpenter Ranches improved quality ranking more than any grower in program history in a single year.
Posted January 06, 2020