Local Hoppiness

Here’s a toast to local farmers like Ken Childs and Eric March and their Star B Ranch, reported on today by the Voice of San Diego. According to the website, the Ramona operation was getting out of large-scale raising of buffalo for meat and decided to plant hops, an essential ingredient in the making of beer. Hop production in the US has been concentrated in the Pacific Northwest. But the burgeoning of excellent craft beers has created lots of local demand for hops. According to VOSD, San Diego Brewing Co. will be using hops from Star B this year in their annual fall beer.  This raises the possibility that we could see at least some 100% local (and world-class) beer!