New Hop Varieties and Developments

Originally published in the January/February 2014 issue of Zymurgy magazine. Late last spring and into summer, nearly 50 breweries and brewpubs across the country served beers with names like Iron Horse IPA, The Cure, and, most often, Ales for ALS. The beers had two things in common—a portion of sales of each one sold went to research to develop treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and every one of them was made with the same hop blend. "We wanted to do something to make it special," said Mike Smith of Loftus Ranches in Washinton's Yakima Valley, talking about the hops that went into the blend. Loftus and Hopunion offered participating breweries the proprietary mix free of charge, and had to turn many away after running out of hops allocated for the…

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