Pick-Your-Own Hops at Star B Ranch
San Diego is home to many things beer-related, but it’s not home to one key element of beer production: ingredients. Barley and wheat haven’t been grown here for decades, and hops, while springing up in a handful of homebrewer’s backyards, are hardly plentiful enough to support a craft-brewery sized operation. Until now.
This summer, Star B Buffalo Ranch debuted its first large-scale hop crop, after planting over an acre of their land with hop rhizomes. Now, they’re harvesting what they estimate to be 1000 - 1500 pounds of cascade, nugget, and willamette hops. And guess what? They want you to come pick them.
This Saturday (and possibly next, depending on how quickly the harvest goes), the ranch is looking for hop-loving volunteers to help with the harvest. In exchange for spending an afternoon at their Ramona ranch, they’re happy to provide volunteers with a pound of fresh hops to take home. If you’d rather spend half your day homebrewing, you can also head over to the ranch and pick your own—for about an hour’s time and $20 per pound, you can walk home with about a pound of hops ready to jump right into your brewpot. If you’re a homebrew association member, the deal is even sweeter—the pick your own hops are just $15 a pound.
Oh, and did I mention it is a buffalo ranch? Not only do you get to surround yourself with hop vines, but each time you shift your gaze, you’ll be greeted with the sight of buffalo grazing in the distance. Buffalo is also for sale, so you can head home with a tasty ribeye or a package of buffalo brats to toss on the grill during the brew session.
If you miss the wet hop window, don’t fret. The ranch is in the process of drying the harvest, and will soon have a website up to accommodate mail orders. Don’t be suprised if you start seeing Star-B hops in homebrew shops around town either.
Star B Ranch’s hops are, to quote Eric March, “as organic as possible,” grown without pesticides or fertalizers. Fresh hops should be used within 24-48 hours of picking, so if you plan to head up Saturday, plan a brewing session for Sunday. A pound of wet hops, for the record, is equivalent to about 3 - 4 ounces of dried hops.
Star B Ranch is located at 28428 Highway 78, Ramona, CA 92065. If you’re interested in visiting the ranch to pick your own or volunteer, contact Eric March at 760-789-8155.
