“Eating is an agricultural act” is one of the most famous propositions of Wendell Berry, a hugely influential writer and commentator on American agriculture and food systems. His work greatly influenced my life as a farmer and that influence extends into my vision for craft beer.
This issue of Hop Notes will suggest that brewing, like eating, is also an agricultural act. It will explore what that concept means for you as a brewer or industry professional. And finally, it will identify three steps you can start taking right now to bring more of your values to your ingredient sourcing.
What does Brewing is an Agricultural Act mean?
At it’s heart, this concept is an acknowledgment that the act of brewing is inherently and irrevocably tied to the agricultural systems that produced your raw ingredients. Besides the pellets or kernels, each box of hops or sack of malt you purchase comes with imbedded environmental, social, and economic impacts. These impacts might be positive, they might be negative, but importantly they exist and you as the purchaser must reckon with them. You have a responsibility as a brewer to learn about these impacts, consider them alongside your personal values, your businesses’ values, and your consumer’s values. Then, and this is the hardest part, shift your purchasing decisions accordingly.
For example, your brewery might be pro-labor and stand in solidarity with the cause of labor, but what do you know about the conditions of the labor that produced your ingredients? Your ingredient dollars may be going to entities with poor labor records or that treat labor in ways that don’t match your or your company’s values.
Maybe your brewery proudly shouts about your pride and support for your local community or your state - what percentage of your raw ingredients are coming from your community or your state? How much responsibility do you have to support local ingredient suppliers because you trade on your local bona-fides?
Or let’s say you are a huge fan of farmers. How do your ingredient purchases impact them and their livelihoods? Are there other choices you could make that would better support them?
This exploration isn’t just about morals or values or touchy-feely stuff. You might be thinking, “it’s just business.” While I’d argue the idea that “it’s just business” is not a catch-all excuse to willfully ignore the impact your business decisions have, I get that day-to-day dollars and cents matter.
Breweries that tell a values-based story and then also walk the walk of those values often find success in their market. In general, craft beer consumers value authenticity. Good marketing and ignorant consumers might mean some breweries get away with inauthentic, mismatched values, but, again, that is no excuse for not living your values. Your drinkers should be able to trust that your beer is an honest extension of your values.
Beyond values, beyond dollars and cents case, working in alignment with your values is one of the best ways to find fulfillment in your work. Anecdotally, brewers have found that exploring their work through the lens of brewing as an agricultural act has deepened their passion for the craft, improved their satisfaction at work, and invited fresh creativity into their recipes.
“Eric, I care and I want to better align my ingredient purchases with my or my brewery’s values. Where do I start?”
Start with Step 1.
Learn about the impacts.
Consume advanced content covering the ingredient industries, talk to farmers and ingredient industry groups, bring in an industry expert for an educational session.
Interview your suppliers about labor practices, environmental impacts, and economic impacts.
Consider how these impacts align with your, your brewery’s, and your community’s values.
Take time, alone and with your team, to review what you’ve learned and where you see gaps or opportunities.
Identify opportunities in your ingredient purchasing to improve values alignment.
Work with fellow brewers, interview new suppliers, or engage with industry experts like your’s truly to map out opportunities for improvement.
I am one person happy to help any of you wanting to start this journey - get in touch.
Through education, thoughtful reflection, and intentional action you can be sure you are supporting an agricultural beer system that you can believe in.
More hop content:
Less acres = more hops?? The August 2023 USDA Crop Production Report is out. It projects overall acreage down 8% (-4,755 acres) but overall yield up to 103,812,000 pounds, a 2.5% increase over last year. It’s not actually that confusing: 1. last year’s harvest was about 10% below average in yield. And 2. yes, overall acres are down, but within that was a big shift in acreage dedicated from relatively lower yielding aroma varieties to relatively higher yielding alpha varieties.
YQH-1320 is now ELANI™️! ELANI™️ (pronounced ee-LAH-nee) is a fun hop with a variety of aroma and rub notes: white peach, tropical, citrus, lime zest. Certainly a hop for the hop-forward beers of today. Learn more here.
Should you contract hops in 2023? My good friend and incredibly smart beer professional Shanleigh has this great visual flow chart guide for your burning questions about contracting hops. Check it out on ShanFerments.com.
Thanks for reading Hop Notes 07. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please consider subscribing or forwarding it to a friend.
That’s all for now. If you have topics you’d like to read about in Hop Notes my inbox is open 24/7: ericrsannerud@gmail.com.
Incredible article Eric, and great step-by-step breakdown of how brewers can help!