DECEMBER 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


17 Good soil makes good drinks even better


Agrologists get to the root of local breweries, wineries and distilleries


by RONDA PAYNE LANGLEY – Farm tours


focused on alcohol tend to get a good turnout, and an October 27 tour by the Fraser Valley branch of the BC Institute of Agrologists was no exception. Guests tasted beverages and learned about the importance of soil and other inputs when it comes to making great beer, wine and spirits.


Sam Glasgow and Bob


Williams of Cole Road Properties Ltd. in East Abbotsford shared the finer points of hops. The farm has 50 acres of hops and a Wolf harvester that’s about the size of a motorhome. Vines are cut down then fed through the harvester, which strips cones from the vines at an average rate of 425 vines an hour. The hops are dried on site and sent for pelletizing. There’s little room for delay


between the time vines are cut and the cones are harvested; Glasgow says there’s a 45-minute window from field to the harvester. Once harvest starts, the machines work around the


Dead Frog Brewery, above, serves a wide range of beer at its Langley location – almost all made from local hops. Below, hops grower Sam Glasgow nurtures 50 acres of the beer ingredient at Cole Road Properties. RONDA PAYNE PHOTOS


clock and cones are tested many times to determine the ideal timing. “It doesn’t matter how good of a grower you are. If you can’t [manage] them properly, all your work will have been wasted,” says Glasgow. The female-only plants love heat and are “pigs for


water,” Glasgow adds, so the site includes drip emitters to get water where it’s needed. He’s hoping to gain a better understanding of water usage to become a better water manager. Hops are perennial plants that can last up to 20 years but they’re generally replaced earlier as tastes change.


Glasgow renews his hopyard with tissue cultures, not rhizomes.


Hops acreage down BC has approximately 350


acres of hops, down from 450 last year following the demise Hops Canada’s venture on Tk’emlups te Secwepemc land near Kamloops.


Besides breweries such as


Dead Frog in Langley and others, Cole Road sells its fresh hops to a soapmaker, to chocolatier ChocolaTas and Lepp Farm Market for sausages. Restaurants use the fresh hops for garnishes and unique dishes.


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