BOSEMAN - Do you know where beer comes from? To find out, we have to take it back to the start. Let’s talk about hops.
“This 10-pound bag is 10 kegs’ worth of hops — which is crazy. That’s 1,200 beers,” said local farmer Jake Teselle.
Watch: How one hop farmer is supporting the state's craft brewing industry
Teselle has got mad hops — and we’re not talking about basketball. He’s a fifth-generation farmer.
About 10 years ago, he went to school for mechanical engineering, but soon realized the farm life was more his style. That’s why he started Crooked Yard Hops.
“The brewing industry at the time was cranking, too. Breweries were opening left and right. There was a hop shortage, so hops really fit the bill,” Teselle said.
Since 2015, breweries have boomed in popularity, with nearly 10 in the Greater Gallatin Valley alone.
We asked Teselle how the hop market is today.
“There aren’t a lot of small hop farms left in the country. A lot of them have closed up shop — largely since COVID — which dealt a pretty serious blow to the brewing industry,” he said.
Teselle says that, including Crooked Yard, there are only three commercial hop farms in Montana. Crooked Yard provides hops to breweries around the state.
Their biggest buyers? MAP Brewing and Red Lodge Ales Brewing Co.
So, what goes into growing this niche crop? Teselle says it starts the same way each year, since hops are perennials.
“In the spring, we go down every row and hand-tie a piece of rope made of coconut fiber to the top cable, stretch it down to the plant, anchor it, then wrap the hop onto the rope by hand,” Teselle explained.
By the way, he hand-ties about 8,000 of these plants each year. The hops grow all summer, and by September, the seven-acre yard is stripped — it’s harvest time.
The hop vines are brought to a small barn that, inside, looks something like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where Teselle is Willy Wonka and the hop machine is his golden invention.
“This is a Wolf 220, and it’s designed for one thing, and one thing only: to pick hops,” Teselle said.
The hop vine moves along a track while a system of drums knocks off hop cones, leaves, and stems. The cones are separated from the leaves and stems through a series of conveyor belts until:
“This is kind of the end of the line for the hops. These are going straight into a bag. We’re taking them to Bozeman Brewing, and they’re going to make beer today,” Teselle said.
Each year, Crooked Yard produces around 6,000 pounds of hops. This delivery included about 150 pounds of Vista fresh hops for a very special beer.
“‘Terroir,’” said Todd Scott, founder of Bozeman Brewing. “It’s a French term basically meaning local flavor.”
Scott created this unique beer, somewhere between a pale ale and an IPA. Terroir is brewed with hops not only from Crooked Yard but from growers all over Gallatin Valley. More than a dozen community members provided hops for this year’s batch.
“That’s why this beer is so unique — it can never be replicated. Even though we’ve been brewing it for 20 years, we’ve never brewed the same Terroir beer twice,” Scott said.
It’s a community-brewed beer using locally grown hops — something Teselle is proud to contribute to.
“That’s what we’re about. That’s what the Gallatin Valley is about. That’s what Montana is about. We’re about Montana, local ag, and we need to stick to our own. In these tougher times, we need to support each other,” Teselle said.
If you want to try the Terroir beer or others brewed with Crooked Yard hops, you can. On Oct. 18, the eighth annual Montana Fresh Hop Festival returns to the Gallatin County Fairgrounds.
