It's HERE! The Inaugural edition of the Oregon Beer Growler,
Above!
Double Mountain Brewery Expanding
Crosby Hop Farm Caters to Craft Brewers
By Gail Oberst
Publisher, Oregon Beer Growler If you’re born into the fifth-generation in a line of Willamette Valley hop farmers, do you feel compelled to farm hops? Not Blake Crosby, son of Kevin and Jennifer Crosby, whose hop farm west of Woodburn has been a source of beer ingredients since the 1800s. Blake, now 27, went to the University of Oregon, eventually graduating in history, a degree that earns him plenty of friendly derision from his fellow farmers who largely earned ag degrees from Oregon State University. “I was interested in exploring new things, new people,” Crosby said. “I was looking for a new perspective.” But eventually, craft beer brought him home to the farm. He developed a love for Oregon’s craft beer, and began dabbling in home brewing when he was still a college student. Four years ago, Crosby turned his interest in craft beers into a sideline of his family’s hop, grass seed and natural angus beef farm. What began as Albert Crosby’s 10-acre patch of hops in the mid-1800s has now expanded to 250 acres of hops and another 150 acres in other crops and livestock. Crosby entered the hops market during the roughest patch hops has seen in recent history, largely the result of a sluggish market for alpha hops (those used by most macro breweries) but he was not deterred. Although his parents grow on contract for some of the larger companies, Crosby set aside his own acreage to grow specialty hops for Oregon’s smaller craft breweries. There, he set up a farming niche he hopes will appeal to the burgeoning craft brew industry in Oregon. He began by planting Cascade, Centennial, Crystal and other hop varieties that grow best in the Willamette Valley. Today, Crosby sells direct to home brewers and breweries that include 10 Barrel, Deschutes, BridgePort, Burnside Brewing and others. In cramped quarters set up behind an ancient barn on his family’s farm, Crosby squeezes past his crewmembers as they package hop rhizomes to be mailed to customers. Home brewing, the rising popularity of fresh hop brews, and increased awareness of hops have prompted an interest in growing the sticky hop vines at home, at businesses and even in public places. Crosby has responded to the demand by setting up an online market for plants at his website, www.bcrosbyhops.com. Orders come with growing tips from Crosby, who passes on his family’s knowledge of |
growing hops. Rhizome sales supplement his direct sales of hops from his fields.
Although family experience has aided Crosby’s business venture, his energy, attention to quality and willingness to try new things have set him apart from larger hop growers. He offers free tours of his hop farm to clubs and brewers – visitors can see hops growing but they can also see the drying and baling operations. Garden clubs, home brew clubs and brewers guilds have toured his place. His energies don’t stop at the farm. In 2010, Crosby was appointed commissioner for the Oregon Hop Commission. He’s now vice chair. In addition to hop work, he’s pursuing an MBA at Willamette University and in his spare time, plays the drums for his band, “Beware the Bear.” What keeps him going? “I love what I’m doing,” Crosby said. “It makes me happy.” |
An edited version of the following article, with photos, appears in July's Oregon Beer Growler.
Following is the full version of Dr. David Lewis' text.
Grand Ronde Indians keep Oregon beer alive through Prohibition

Prohibition impacted beer-making nationwide, but in Oregon, tribal entities, including the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, helped keep the art alive. Following is the edited version of the story by tribal historian David Lewis, who will talk July 26 as part of the Willamette Heritage Center’s “History on Tap” series celebrating Oregon Craft Beer Month. The unedited text of the story is below. The edited version is in July's edition of the Oregon Beer Growler.
By Dr. David Lewis
The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon is a federally recognized tribe that was restored in 1983. Previous to the final termination of the tribe in 1956, the people of the Grand Ronde Reservation lived there for 100 years. The people are the descendants of over 27 tribes and bands from western Oregon; the main tribes being the Clackamas Chinook, Kalapuya, Molalla, Upper Umpqua, Athapaskan, Takelma, Tillamook and Shasta. The reservation was organized as a military encampment where travel off the reservation was strictly controlled and people needed passes to leave. The military also prevented unwanted white people from entering the reservation to eliminate the racial conflicts.
From the earliest administrative history of the reservations, the United States government worked to control the access of native people to alcohol and made it a crime to sell to natives. The control of alcohol was linked to issues of halting the corruption of moral values of the Indians, and to pseudo-scientific stereotypes that linked natives to alcoholism. Prohibition for the tribes of the United States was a constant state for over a century. In Oregon the initiation of the treaties and the tribal removals to the reservations in 1856 caused the federal government to impose laws and rules against the sale of alcohol to the Indian people on the reservation. In fact the Treaty with the Kalapuya etc. states
“In order to prevent the evils of intemperance among said Indians, it is hereby provided that any one of them who shall drink liquor, or procure it for other Indians to drink, may have his or her proportion of the annuities withheld from him or her for such time as the President may determine.”[1]
The Bureau of Indian Affairs passed policies against American citizens selling alcohol to the Indians and disallowed travel onto the reservation to protect the tribes from those sales. Indians at the reservation were tried and found guilty of crimes of bringing spirits onto the reservation. More
By Dr. David Lewis
The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon is a federally recognized tribe that was restored in 1983. Previous to the final termination of the tribe in 1956, the people of the Grand Ronde Reservation lived there for 100 years. The people are the descendants of over 27 tribes and bands from western Oregon; the main tribes being the Clackamas Chinook, Kalapuya, Molalla, Upper Umpqua, Athapaskan, Takelma, Tillamook and Shasta. The reservation was organized as a military encampment where travel off the reservation was strictly controlled and people needed passes to leave. The military also prevented unwanted white people from entering the reservation to eliminate the racial conflicts.
From the earliest administrative history of the reservations, the United States government worked to control the access of native people to alcohol and made it a crime to sell to natives. The control of alcohol was linked to issues of halting the corruption of moral values of the Indians, and to pseudo-scientific stereotypes that linked natives to alcoholism. Prohibition for the tribes of the United States was a constant state for over a century. In Oregon the initiation of the treaties and the tribal removals to the reservations in 1856 caused the federal government to impose laws and rules against the sale of alcohol to the Indian people on the reservation. In fact the Treaty with the Kalapuya etc. states
“In order to prevent the evils of intemperance among said Indians, it is hereby provided that any one of them who shall drink liquor, or procure it for other Indians to drink, may have his or her proportion of the annuities withheld from him or her for such time as the President may determine.”[1]
The Bureau of Indian Affairs passed policies against American citizens selling alcohol to the Indians and disallowed travel onto the reservation to protect the tribes from those sales. Indians at the reservation were tried and found guilty of crimes of bringing spirits onto the reservation. More
