Hops on Hops on Hops

“What’s the main crop in beer...and what’s IP’s connection to it?”

I was in a restaurant the other day that offered more than 100 beers on tap. That’s insane.  

Having worked in restaurants before, I first wondered how often they actually clean the keg lines. Naturally, the second thing I wondered is, “What’s the main crop in beer and what’s IP’s connection to it?”

I learned that hops are a necessary and primary ingredient in all beer. This aromatic Mozart of the brewing world helps keep beer fresher and adds to the flavor of the beverage. About 50% of the world’s hops production comes from the United States and 75% of that amount comes from the State of the Washington.

Our current hops customers use an array of boxes depending on how they distribute hops.

Within Washington, the City of Yakima has more hops per capita than anywhere else in the world. And guess who has a box plant in there?  

International Paper.

In fact, with microbreweries popping up left and right, our Yakima team is ready to produce sustainable packaging solutions for anyone who comes knocking. Our current hops customers use an array of boxes depending on how they distribute hops. Some hops are pelletized while others are melted and caramelized into a concentrate that is then shipped in cans via a regular slotted container (RSC). RSCs are your standard boxes, like ones that arrive at your house.  

If shipped loosely, a packaging design for hops will need to be more complex and factor in things like moisture control, handling and light protection as too much UV light can degrade the plants’ quality.  

Back to the restaurant I was in, they claimed to have “just cleaned the lines.” Either way, the beer was cold, hoppy and involved corrugated packaging – what could be better?