Latest / No Dirt No Flowers Podcast / Recap, Reflect & Discuss Amidst Noise

Transcript

Recap, Reflect & Discuss Amidst Noise · No Dirt No Flowers Podcast

0:00
Hello everyone and welcome back to episode 14
0:02
of No Dirt, No Flowers. Today Mike and Drew will
0:04
be going through the 2025 growing season, a quick
0:07
little recap of how the crop came in, the growing
0:10
season and growing conditions that they had,
0:12
and we'll also touch on what's coming for Crop
0:14
Year 2026. That'll also include some fun events
0:17
we'll be having in the coming months, which I'll
0:19
pop in at the end of the episode and give a little
0:21
more details on. Also, just a little heads up,
0:24
Mike and Drew finally find the sound effects
0:26
buttons in this episode, so have fun with that.
0:29
Enjoy the show. I just had a wild idea. Go. What
0:42
if Liz just kind of got on the mic as just kind
0:44
of commentary, but actually on the mic. Like,
0:48
we're just going to have our discussion, but
0:49
then every once in a while, Liz might. Let's
0:52
do that. Come on. Get over here. Go add a little
0:55
spice. Here we go. Episode 14. Liz is psyched.
1:01
You look psyched. You actually kind of do. I'll
1:04
get there. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, episode 14. No
1:09
dirt, no flowers. A little bit of a, what, harvest
1:12
recap, pre -year end kind of state of things.
1:17
Yeah. Touching base. I'm going to try and do
1:20
two more before the end of the year. We've got
1:23
a guest. potentially for the next one, and then
1:26
maybe a wrap -up with the two of us. Like a nice
1:30
holiday season closeout type deal? Yeah. Gosh,
1:33
that sounds nice. It does. Should we drink eggnog?
1:37
I don't like eggnog. No. Should we? We can make
1:41
some kind of fancy cocktail. Yeah, I like that.
1:44
Yeah, that's a good idea. And we'll sprinkle
1:45
some hops in there. Or garnish it. Garnish. Oh,
1:48
that's a good idea. I'm going to write this down.
1:51
I'll look around for some recipes. Wouldn't it
1:54
be fantastic if the cocktail industry started
1:57
like dry hopping gin at like a pound a liter
2:02
or something like that? I wish that'd be good.
2:05
I know. I've had hopped gin before. Yeah? It
2:10
was okay. Actually. That was not the response
2:15
I was looking for out of a gin aficionado. Actually,
2:20
your dad got that. hopped gin out of Germany.
2:23
And that was really good. He wants the bottle
2:27
back, but I don't think I ever brought it back.
2:29
I think it's hiding it at my home there. Hiding
2:32
with your other bottles? And by hiding, I think
2:35
my wife put it on a little display cart. Which
2:40
is kind of a strange little deal. It's got some
2:42
full bottles of things and then just some pretty
2:46
bottles. It's a weird world we live in. You know
2:50
what else would be a really fun topic? For today?
2:53
Could be today. Could be another day. What? Where
3:00
I interview you. Oh, I like this. It could go
3:06
both ways, though. You interview Mike, Mike interviews
3:09
you, half and half. We could do that. Let's try
3:12
that. That would be a cool ending for the first
3:14
season. Oh, that would be a good ending for the
3:16
first season. At least part of it, like the last
3:18
half. Yeah. Do 20 minutes each with each other
3:22
or something. Should we do that for the last
3:23
one? Yeah, that sounds good. Okay. I am pretty
3:28
excited. Would you each come up with like 10
3:29
questions or something? Oh, no. He might script.
3:34
I might script a little bit. I just see like
3:37
a scenario where I'm like, so here you are 1
3:39
,600 feet in the air on a solid sheer rock face.
3:47
What's going through your mind? Precision. Excellence.
3:55
Okay, well, we'll talk about that later. I wish
3:58
I was in 10 sleep right now. Maybe not 1 ,600
4:03
feet up, but 80 on a sweet piece of limestone.
4:08
I bet it's pretty cold there. Sending temps.
4:13
What'd you call it? Sending temps. Do you know
4:18
what that means? Clearly not. It means the temperatures
4:22
are at a place where you're more likely to do
4:25
your project climb because things are stickier
4:29
and drier. We're making fantastic progress. It's
4:35
a warm -up. And honestly, I think that people
4:40
do enjoy a bit of this, and we haven't had this
4:43
in a while, the complete randomness. Yeah, I
4:47
suppose that's true. I mean, we should probably
4:49
start talking about something. Yeah. Yes. As
4:55
your manager, producer, whatever I am, my role.
4:58
Yeah. Let's get to work. All right. Yeah. So
5:00
if we talk about, you know, we've had guests
5:04
on a lot of guests on this year, like 12 of them
5:07
or something like that. And had a really good
5:11
harvest show series or like a run during harvest.
5:18
But we haven't talked a lot about Roy Farms,
5:20
generally speaking. Yeah, talk a little bit about
5:26
the growing season, how inputs went, how water
5:29
went, quality just in general, weather, things
5:34
you heard from other places around the Northwest,
5:37
whatever. Yeah, I mean, we've talked a bit about
5:41
how the year went along the way and a lot of
5:45
our customers. Came out and visited us during
5:49
harvest, and I think we've covered a good chunk
5:53
of that. But generally speaking, we saw good
5:56
growing conditions this year, lower pest pressures,
5:59
good yields, good quality. I think a couple of
6:03
the standouts for me were the continual advancements
6:07
in our water management program, and that seems
6:11
to be improving or is improving every year, which
6:14
is exciting because those that know know that.
6:17
Water is a passion of mine. It's been well documented
6:21
on this show, in fact. Yeah. So that's exciting.
6:24
And got really good data on our carbon footprint,
6:29
which we're going to do some stuff with moving
6:31
forward, which is exciting. Hadn't talked about
6:34
that, but we will in upcoming episodes when we
6:38
move that a little further along. Yeah, quality
6:41
was good. I'm trying to think on our organic
6:44
production. We are still dialing in some of the
6:50
production practices and harvest timing to get
6:54
a little bit more punch out of those. I mean,
6:57
the quality was good, but that organic production
7:00
system does have a tendency to mute things out
7:05
a little bit for a couple of different reasons.
7:07
And so fine -tuning that program next year is
7:10
exciting. production costs and and whatnot to
7:18
get that thing a little bit more leaner and cost
7:22
competitive and also look at reducing some of
7:26
the exportation risks through a few different
7:29
vehicles to sure you know i'm sitting here right
7:33
now and i'm thinking that what we need to do
7:36
is have like a segment yeah on several shows
7:40
that are called mike's passion projects oh i
7:42
love it And maybe even getting a little bit of
7:46
a fun jingle that goes beforehand. We have all
7:51
these little pre -programmed buttons right here
7:53
that can be jingles. Are there any jingles in
7:55
there right now? Let me try one. Oh, yeah. Mike's
8:01
Passion Projects. Season two. And then we could
8:06
have a board up on the wall that has organics.
8:12
Real life marketing. Water. What else are your
8:16
little passion projects right now? Where you
8:18
just light a fuse. Oh, landscaping. I love landscaping.
8:24
I know. You can do an episode out on a piece
8:28
of equipment. Oh, yeah. Live from the excavator.
8:34
People will be like, can we make sure that Mike
8:38
doesn't come down here with an excavator right
8:40
now? He's going to just start ripping things
8:41
apart. Just full of jingles. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.
8:47
This is a game changer. I want that as my job.
8:49
I totally forgot about this. But you can preset
8:53
them, right? Yeah, you can preset them. I think
8:54
they're already. Oh. So funny. Crickets. Can
9:01
you have that one going? The crickets? Like,
9:05
just have it teed up. Actually, we might need
9:07
to change spots. I want to be in control of those.
9:15
Okay. Okay. All right, so growing season goes
9:19
well. Wait, I got a couple other highlights.
9:23
Okay, keep going. We let our squirrel run loose
9:29
there for a minute. What was I talking about?
9:32
I was talking about organics. That's exciting.
9:35
And, oh, one of the other pet passion projects
9:41
of this harvest was digging into a Zaka deeper.
9:45
So that was a real fun highlight of the harvest,
9:47
I thought, was some of the feedback that we've
9:50
gotten from customers was that when a Zaka is
9:53
really on, it's on and great. And then at other
9:56
times, it can be a little bit off. That didn't
10:01
really make a lot of sense to me on why there
10:03
would be that much variability. I had a couple
10:06
of theories. One of them was that, you know,
10:09
the Latitude 46 program didn't have a tight enough
10:12
window on its harvest dates. So you went down
10:18
and worked with Hop Technics to have them? Yeah,
10:21
shout out to Hop Technics. They did some really
10:23
good work for us this year, and we were able
10:25
to look at... specifically the three mmp peak
10:30
and some other ones and how that developed approaching
10:37
the harvest window and what we ended up doing
10:40
was you know in a very simplistic way it was
10:42
like moving the harvest window out but we looked
10:46
at every block across you know every farm that's
10:50
growing it and And I think we learned a lot this
10:54
harvest. And so, yeah, moving it out, but then
10:56
also making sure that you have the cone integrity
10:58
there to be able to push it and let those tiles
11:03
develop. So, yeah, that was a highlight. That
11:06
was fun. What do you got? I was going to take
11:11
a little path down the side. Pellet quality,
11:14
we've talked about that. I think, in general,
11:17
the pellet quality increased a lot from last
11:20
year. I know the pellet quality increased a lot
11:23
from last year. We had one little weird thing
11:25
the other day in a conversation where... I think
11:28
that was a them problem, not an us problem. Could
11:31
be. We'll find out. We'll find out. Yeah, talking
11:35
about Mike's passion projects. For those of you
11:40
that don't know, I'm talking a little bit more
11:43
about Roy Farms when... Are you talking about
11:45
Roy Farms or are you talking about me? Both.
11:48
Mike Roy of Roy Farms. You know, Zag has gone
11:52
through a very challenging time over the last
11:57
several years. And there were all these, you
11:59
know, other projects going on on the farm before
12:03
that leading up to it. You know, blueberries
12:06
and apples and cherries and all this other stuff
12:10
going on. Our dear friend Mike was a little bit
12:14
absent from his real passion of farming. And
12:17
now, that's a little background. Mike has dove
12:22
in to his little project. So we work hard to
12:26
keep him focused on a handful of things. It is
12:29
a challenging thing. But it's producing fruit.
12:34
And by fruit, I mean flowers. Cones. You know
12:39
what they call them in Germany? What? Coins.
12:42
Coins? Like the money. What they call hop cones
12:47
coins? Mm -hmm. Learned that from George Breitner
12:52
and Leonard Breitner. Fine folks. Love those
12:57
guys. Absolutely. But yeah, harvest went good.
13:01
We are gearing up for next year now, which is
13:05
a huge challenge. You know, operationally, I
13:08
think we're doing really well. We have our team
13:12
coming together really well. But on the other
13:15
side of that, you know, the market is still...
13:18
a very confused space right now and there's a
13:25
lot of fear from the brewer side the grower side
13:28
i'm sure the merchant side as well because balance
13:33
sheets throughout the supply chain can't handle
13:36
much more volatility and so while the farming
13:41
side is going well the planning side And what
13:46
are we going to do and how do we get people to
13:48
contract and communicate and all that has been
13:50
challenging, even though we're making progress
13:52
on that. Yeah, I mean, fortunately, we are making
13:57
progress. I don't know if that's universal across
13:59
the entire industry. I would love to know. I
14:03
mean, the spot game is still strong, but I don't
14:08
think a strong spot market is necessarily a good
14:11
thing. I mean, it is when you're sitting on hops
14:13
that you need to get rid of. I think we were
14:16
80 % contracted going into harvest and came in
14:21
a little bit above yield expectations. And so
14:25
as of right now, what are we, a couple months?
14:28
Well, a month, month and a half. Post -harvest.
14:33
95 % or something. Yeah, so we went from 80 %
14:35
to 95%. And then going into next year, we're
14:38
65 % or 70 % probably. Yeah, right now. Yeah,
14:45
so, I mean, not bad, but it definitely is challenging
14:49
to try and figure out these budgets when there's
14:55
a few question marks out there. Oh, yeah. I wonder
14:59
how brewers do their budgeting for future calendar
15:04
years when they don't know which brands are going
15:06
to do what, or they just guess educatedly. It's
15:12
probably fairly similar. we kind of know what
15:14
what we generally move through the spot market
15:17
you know and so we're looking at contracts plus
15:20
spots plus question marks it is an interesting
15:24
thing because like the brewer budget for next
15:28
year is based off a crop that's already been
15:30
picked yeah so basically going into we're trying
15:36
to plan a year out before they've even performed
15:42
What a world. Well, I mean, one of the main questions
15:46
we get whenever we go into these budget meetings
15:48
is how many acres are we going to have next year?
15:50
And you and I are like, we don't know. Hopefully
15:53
more. I mean, it looks like more. But I mean,
15:58
I'm just talking about the complications of trying
16:01
to put these budgets together with what you just
16:04
talked about and then adding the fact that we
16:06
don't really know acreage until... I suppose
16:10
best case scenario, we would have an identified
16:14
plan and within, well, before the end of the
16:17
year, but in all reality, it usually extends
16:19
out to February or even March sometimes before
16:23
you know exactly what you're doing. Oh, yeah.
16:25
Well, and it's interesting because, you know,
16:27
a very large percentage of our crop goes direct
16:31
to brewers. And then, you know, we sell to a
16:35
couple of merchants and then our... you know,
16:38
our relationship with Crosby as well. So we are
16:42
a key supplier for them, but it takes all of
16:45
them, you know, they're on the same program where
16:48
they have to figure everything out. And I guess
16:52
semi -nice, we did hear from one merchant that
16:58
our contract just wasn't going to be renewed
17:00
this year. And so at least we know that. That's
17:03
a nice thing. I mean, from a planning standpoint,
17:06
we know now. Yes, from a planning standpoint,
17:09
thank you for taking our contracts to zero, even
17:13
though we knew that was coming. Yeah, it just
17:16
didn't get renewed. I mean, it was possible,
17:18
but. It is, but there. Yeah, so we did get notice
17:22
that, you know, we will not be delivering into
17:26
one of the merchants moving forward. And we had
17:31
a longstanding relationship with Chief. And,
17:33
yeah, it's unfortunate. I mean, the market is
17:36
what it is. On one side, I see the challenges
17:39
that they're going through, which is, you know,
17:42
keeping their grower owners healthy moving forward.
17:46
And on the flip side, I have some challenges
17:49
with that because, you know, we participated
17:52
in that business model for a number of years.
17:55
And then on the downside, you get hacked out.
17:59
Fortunately, you know, we do have our direct
18:03
business. crosby and haas and you know as far
18:10
as citra goes which was the main thing that we
18:13
were delivering into chief we do have outlets
18:16
through both crosby and haas and in all reality
18:19
our own sales desk as well but uh yeah so if
18:25
anyone's looking for roy farm citra you can still
18:27
grab it at crosby and haas absolutely yeah But
18:33
again, it's nice to know now instead of in the,
18:36
you know, in the spring. And I do think the merchants
18:41
are getting better at communicating earlier,
18:44
which is really helpful. That was always a challenge,
18:46
you know, when I was in that role doing procurement
18:50
and grower relations where, you know, what does
18:56
everybody need? You don't want to overplant.
18:58
You don't want to underplant. You want to give
19:00
the market what it needs. I think the industry
19:06
in general is doing a better job from what I
19:09
can tell. I agree. That's a big lift to try and
19:14
look a year out or multi -years out in this industry.
19:20
I do agree that it seems like people are getting
19:22
better at it. In your mind, what is contributing
19:27
to doing a better job? I don't know if things
19:31
are any easier than they have been in the past.
19:34
I think, well, I can't speak specifically to
19:38
everybody out there, but I could say, you know,
19:44
I, I was part of, as you know, as you all know,
19:48
I worked for Yakimachi for a long time at Yakimachi
19:51
branches, obviously very closely with Yakimachi
19:54
pops and they put it to something really smart.
19:58
Several years back, put a really, really good,
20:00
data science department in and it takes a while
20:03
to build that build that up and then they brought
20:05
in some key people to help with forecasting and
20:09
and so i think that's the main way that that
20:12
they did that and again have done a good job
20:15
at that it is a bummer that that we don't grow
20:19
firm anymore but at the same time the industry
20:21
needs you know needs to have balance and so and
20:26
to your point it's really Really good that we
20:29
still have strong... And we still have a good
20:31
relationship with YCH, not to give any other
20:34
impression. Just not a business relationship
20:37
right now, and that's the state of the industry,
20:39
but very thankful for the relationships we have
20:42
with Crosby and Hawes and some others. We have
20:48
a great relationship with Charles Ferrum. They
20:50
do a great job in the UK. Yeah, I was just going
20:51
to say Ferrum, yeah. And then... You know, from
20:56
our standpoint with our direct business, we seemingly
21:02
have been doing a pretty good job at getting,
21:04
you know, longer term contracts with some key
21:08
customers that are pretty stable. And that helps
21:11
us a lot with planning as well. I think this
21:14
whole thing is going to work itself out. It's
21:16
just like it's still going to be ugly for a few
21:18
more years. Yeah. I don't know. What do you think?
21:23
About how long it's going to be ugly? i don't
21:28
know i mean you know i was hoping that i don't
21:32
know it depends on how you define that because
21:36
we are gradually getting better like roy farms
21:38
us what we're doing is it's gradually getting
21:41
better right and uh i think it's always slower
21:45
than what you would like oh yeah and you know
21:50
we we've thrown out dates or years like you know
21:55
2028 or you know 2027 2028 that's when we're
21:59
going to turn the corner and start to see more
22:03
contracting more stability you know or is that
22:06
29 or is it 30 i was talking to somebody the
22:08
other day and they're like well based on my calculations
22:10
i'm looking at 2030 so it's like i don't know
22:13
it can't last that long you mean the growers
22:16
can't have it last that long no yeah there's
22:19
no way We will have to lose growers if it takes
22:24
that long because I don't know how many people
22:27
can make it for a couple more years. I mean,
22:30
we are, you know, last year was a year where,
22:34
was that 24? We got by on the skin of our teeth.
22:41
And then this year treading water and hoping
22:45
to tread water less next year. We want a boat
22:50
soon. But we also have the direct business that
22:57
helps us out a lot. Helps us out a lot. And not
23:01
everybody has that. So, yeah, I don't know how
23:04
much longer. If we didn't have our direct business,
23:07
we would probably be toast. Oh, it would be game
23:10
over for sure. There's no way around that. I
23:16
mean, that. The sales desk and the ability to
23:19
partner up with Crosby because we have two sales
23:23
desks, I mean, was what saved us. Oh, absolutely.
23:28
I don't want to belittle or diminish, you know,
23:32
like long -term relationships that are very healthy
23:34
and functional, like with Taz, you know, and
23:37
that is, it's very good. But when you look at
23:41
the aggregate, look at things in the aggregate.
23:45
that's not enough yeah it's a very important
23:50
key part of what we do but you know looking forward
23:55
as we keep talking about the future and what's
23:57
going to change i think the variables the big
24:00
variables that i see right now i'm not as concerned
24:05
about beer production which i know a lot of people
24:08
are but it's going to be what it's going to be
24:11
And it's probably going to decline a little bit
24:13
more for a couple more years, and then it'll,
24:15
you know, stabilize. I'm drinking more beer than
24:19
I ever have. That you are. That you are. It's
24:24
fantastic. I found that I enjoy me a nice Pilsner
24:28
or lager. You need to have, like, hazy IPAs with
24:33
five pounds of barrel in them. It was going to
24:36
blow me up. I had one last night, a Vera one.
24:39
A Vera? Yeah. Hazy. I assume it was a Vera one
24:44
because it was called Vera -licious with a hyphen.
24:47
Seems fairly obvious. Shout out to Varietal.
24:50
Is Liz going to look that up right now? Fact
24:52
check. Fact check. Perfect. We haven't heard
24:55
your voice in a while, Liz. Oh, do like a button
24:56
thing. Like what? That's too aggressive. Yeah,
25:01
no. Find something. No. Is that a fart? No, you
25:05
save that one for if I was wrong about that,
25:07
then like rewind. Yes, Drew, you are correct.
25:11
What? Oh, Vera. I'll find it. Ding, ding, ding.
25:13
What else is in there? Tell us a little bit about
25:15
what you just found there. See, I love this.
25:17
This is just like a real podcast. Don't you have
25:21
a button that says I was right? Oh, you said
25:23
varietal. This is Drew Brew. Oh, see? Was it
25:27
varietal or Drew Brew? It said varietal, but
25:31
it's called Drew Brew makes a Vera -licious.
25:35
A Vera -licious. I don't know how to say that.
25:41
Voracious. Voracious. That's which one it was?
25:44
Shout out to Drew Brew. Okay, so apologies to
25:48
Varietal. Was that what the can looked like?
25:51
It wasn't a can. It was draft. Oh. Anyhow, I
25:58
had a beer. A hazy. It was good. Was it that
26:03
one? Drew Brew? I can't imagine there's another
26:06
Voracious. I mean. Yeah, I agree. As long as
26:11
we're talking about Varietal, I do really enjoy
26:13
their hopwaters, just since we may have made
26:16
a mistake on the veribere bean from Varietal.
26:22
I feel like I'm going to give them a little shout
26:23
-out right now. I like their hopwater. Shout
26:26
-out. Which one? I don't know. Why don't we label
26:35
those things? We'll play around with those. Oh,
26:38
it says up here. Oh, there you go. All right.
26:42
So anyhow, I'm not super concerned about the
26:46
declining beer consumption. I think that's going
26:48
to normalize and figure itself out, and it's
26:50
cyclical and, you know, blah, blah, blah. What
26:55
I think the bigger challenges that we're facing
26:58
are, and opportunities both, are breeding programs.
27:04
Oh, yeah. and bringing new flavors and aromas
27:07
and novelty you know higher yields which will
27:11
push down acreage and then the other one is this
27:14
downstream product thing is really hard to figure
27:17
out i think a lot of brewers are really curious
27:20
about it some are committed some are anti some
27:25
it just doesn't offer as much we've heard with
27:31
you know i mean if you have i guess certain centrifuges
27:36
and things like that maybe it doesn't offer as
27:38
much but yeah it's a really hard thing to to
27:42
put a finger on because i mean you got all these
27:44
different products out there in the market from
27:46
you know the boosts to abstracts to anyway yeah
27:53
so you got all these different products out there
27:55
you got abstracts hops oil the boosts pauses
28:00
product line they have a new one out But yeah,
28:02
when you look at how those could impact the beer
28:06
market in general, could impact the total demand,
28:10
they could also help acreage if non -beer starts
28:18
using them. Like if it went into food product,
28:21
for example. So all that will be really interesting
28:24
to watch play out. A little nerve -wracking and
28:28
exciting at the same time. Yeah, I mean, I think
28:32
we've talked about it a little bit, but one of
28:34
the biggest things happening in this hot market
28:39
for this correction, besides just working inventories
28:43
out of the system and the entire supply chain
28:47
stabilizing is a movement of market share. And
28:51
that's one thing we're seeing a lot of is that
28:53
where market share existed in the past. Yeah,
28:58
it seems like it's reallocating. Yeah, isn't
29:00
exactly where it's going to be when things reset.
29:03
So what is the market share going to look like
29:06
when this thing stabilizes? Yeah, I spent a lot
29:10
of time thinking about that and how's it going
29:14
to look and why and is there going to be an ebb
29:16
and flow? I mean, if you look back over the last
29:20
20 years, you see like all kinds of trading hands
29:25
of market share. at one point the big big alpha
29:28
like the biggest actors in the world were i mean
29:34
you still got steiner and haas that have always
29:35
been the biggest actors in that and now yakima
29:37
chief i think is very much in that but you know
29:42
roy farms wyckoff green acres were the like the
29:46
force to be reckoned with on the growing and
29:49
selling direct side and then that kind of got
29:51
traded for craft and you know the us was the
29:54
big alpha producer and germany was the big roma
29:57
producer now that's traded hands but presumptively
30:01
that's going to swing back in some way i would
30:06
assume strip them back around you know you got
30:09
all these hot products out there and i mean to
30:13
some degree it's a crowded market space it is
30:16
a crowded market space but then one of the things
30:19
that's been told to me too is that kind of all
30:22
these products have some unique maybe some more
30:26
than others application yeah you know and so
30:29
it's not kind of like a one product rules them
30:32
all type of situation and of course like you
30:35
got hot side gold side and you know different
30:39
ways you can use these things but yeah it's gonna
30:42
be interesting to see i agree seems like one
30:46
of the directions people are going in is well
30:48
there's two different directions one is that
30:50
you know these mass -produced like one true to
30:53
type or one note type situations and then tool
30:57
processing where a brewer will select their hops
31:00
and then they'll have those specific selections
31:04
tool processed at a smaller volume oh yeah which
31:09
i mean i guess most of our customers that we've
31:12
talked to that's kind of what they're doing or
31:15
not using it really at all yet yeah it'll be
31:18
interesting to see how that plays out There seems
31:21
to be this resurgence of organic right now in
31:25
certain areas. Resurgence of organic. Let's talk
31:28
about that more because that's one of my passion
31:29
projects. Well, I mean, it's like a small, like,
31:34
I mean, what it makes up one and a half or 2
31:37
% of our acreage. But while we still have huge
31:42
challenges getting organics into Europe, domestically,
31:46
we are having oddly like some, Like several larger
31:51
actors that are coming in saying, hey, we want
31:55
to start producing organic beer. And so that's
31:59
interesting. Would love to know what's driving
32:01
that. Because organics are just a pain to grow.
32:05
They are not. Okay. All right. It's just a different
32:10
puzzle. Okay. They're a puzzle that needs to
32:13
be solved. Well, to start with, don't try and
32:17
grow every stupid variety under the sun. 60 %
32:21
of them are going to fail organically. 40 % of
32:25
them, I'm making numbers up, could do awesome.
32:28
But you got to start with something that does
32:31
exceptionally well conventionally and doesn't
32:36
have all the diseased and tendencies to have
32:39
pest pressures. I mean, like Adina and Azaka
32:44
is an example. Not to toot our own horn, but
32:47
those do great because... Are you going to stop
33:01
that? It's on its own timer. Anyway. I'm just
33:07
imagining Teddy from Society right now sitting
33:10
down in the brew house because I think he's our
33:13
biggest fan. He might be our biggest fan. Sitting
33:15
down there and every time that comes on, I'm
33:17
just laughing. Guys, get a load of these morons.
33:25
Oh, which by the way, I mean, we're having the
33:28
beer experience down at Society in January. Oh,
33:32
yeah. Did we ever talk about the experience from
33:36
the hop experience? Why don't we talk about the
33:38
hop experience? I mean, I think we mentioned
33:40
it at one point, but this is going to become
33:41
a thing now. Yeah. So the hop experience is an
33:47
interactive. Is there a way to put like mood
33:51
music on in the background? I'm sure, but I don't
33:53
know how here. But while I'm looking for the
33:56
right sound. No, we'll just talk about the hop
33:58
experience. It's fine. I think we need to give,
34:01
you know, Shan Lee was with us for a while and
34:04
she did a really great job putting on that first
34:06
one, which is kind of the incubator for what
34:09
we're doing now. Yeah. Well, basically what it
34:12
is, is we go into a big beer. So we did it in
34:18
Seattle in January, I believe. And ask a handful
34:24
of brewers, 10 or 12, to brew with hops that
34:26
oftentimes have never been brewed with before.
34:30
And sometimes they have been. And brew a beer
34:33
and then bring it in to one location. We did
34:38
it at Bale Breakers and Yonder's spot in Seattle.
34:43
Ballard, I guess. Yep. And I think there were
34:46
50 or 60 breweries that came in and tasted the
34:50
beer, gave sensory notes with the hops on the
34:54
table there. And it allows us to get really concentrated
34:58
and focused feedback from those that are actually
35:02
going to be using the hops. And it's also, you
35:07
know, it's a helpful marketing tool or, I guess,
35:10
indicator to know what we should expand and not
35:13
expand. And so we're doing it, I think, in three
35:18
or four different places coming up. I know the
35:21
first two, and this is between Crosby and Roy's.
35:24
So we'll have the first one just had Latitude
35:27
46 varieties. And the next one down in San Diego,
35:32
we'll have some Crosby Experimentals and Latitude
35:36
46 Experimentals. And it's at Society. So brewers
35:42
from all around the... greater san diego area
35:45
i'm assuming los angeles will be invited to a
35:49
brewer only event to come taste and have some
35:53
food get some swag give feedback and i think
35:56
we're going to texas after this uh but it's really
36:01
cool what the feedback from it has been quite
36:03
positive yeah i mean there's obviously an operational
36:06
or a functional aspect but uh i think one of
36:09
the takeaways from our first one in seattle was
36:13
that it was just really fun and it was just as
36:17
much as it was just as much of a community builder
36:20
as it was you know an operational success so
36:26
which is really cool and i'm looking forward
36:28
to the next one absolutely yep um i think one
36:32
of the comments was like oh this feels like the
36:35
old days yep yeah brewers really appreciated
36:39
um being able to kind of collaborate, I guess,
36:43
on hop selection, which I thought was really
36:46
neat. And honestly, for basically zero guidelines,
36:54
we probably only had one or two beers out of
36:56
that that were kind of like really off the wall
36:58
or something and maybe didn't give the best feedback.
37:01
That just meant we didn't need to use those hops
37:03
anymore. Get them out. yeah and in some cases
37:07
there was just like too many i think in one case
37:09
i'm thinking about there was just too many hops
37:11
in there it was a great beer like eight varieties
37:12
yeah but it was a great beer but it just didn't
37:15
give us enough feedback and so but that's fine
37:17
i mean gotta gotta have the bookends absolutely
37:21
man that little detour we just took all because
37:24
of you pushing that laughy button and me thinking
37:27
of teddy chuckling yeah how about that love it
37:34
Maybe we should do the YouTube thing so people
37:37
can see the funny stuff that Liz keeps doing.
37:40
Oh, we're going to YouTube this thing next year.
37:45
Yeah. You got to figure out where your cameras
37:48
are going to be. Cameras. Oh, that's easy. As
37:52
long as we have Mike's passion project board
37:54
in the background. There's something else I want
37:56
to talk about on the beer experience, but still
38:00
just the hop experience. Hop experience. With
38:02
a capital E. xp yep for experimental experience
38:07
clever clever i think that was either shanley's
38:10
or andy's idea yeah but anyone who i think we
38:14
got some we got a good list going for san diego
38:17
but anybody down in that area that's interested
38:19
can reach out to andy yeah i'm sure between he
38:24
and crosby they'll get a real nice list yep going
38:27
out to everybody But we'll be there. We'll be
38:32
recording a couple podcasts from San Diego. We've
38:36
got some fun guests coming on. Yeah, that's the
38:38
other thing is we want to try and start recording
38:40
on the road a little bit more because I think
38:42
it would open up opportunities. Mike and Drew
38:46
take the road. I think it would be fun to actually
38:49
road trip with. I think it would be awesome to
38:53
road trip with stuff. I am. Yeah, I don't know
38:59
how that's going to happen with everything that
39:00
we have on our plate, but I think that'd be amazing.
39:03
We could just go for a drive. Oh, we could do
39:05
it while we go skiing this summer. Winter. Like
39:08
podcasting from the chair? From the bar? What?
39:14
What are we talking? I was thinking literally
39:16
on the road. Oh. That's better. That'd be ADD
39:21
on steroids. Us talking. Like instead of fireside
39:26
chats, it's just like ski hill chats. Yeah. I
39:30
like it. Well, I guess we've given plenty of
39:33
nice little updates on where we're at. Yeah.
39:36
We missed anything. Probably, but that's more
39:40
content for the future. Yeah. It's nice to have
39:43
a little rambly morning conversation. Oh yeah.
39:49
With Liz. Yeah, Friday. Roy Farms shut down the
39:54
office on Fridays. I think we moved to 410s.
39:58
410s. We're recording on a Friday, which is nice
40:01
because it's very quiet here. It's kind of odd.
40:04
I think everyone's digging it. It's a little
40:05
weird. I think it makes sense. I think it makes
40:09
total sense. Yeah, we asked people and I think
40:11
the majority of people were like, yeah, why not?
40:14
Let's do it. I think one other update. that we
40:19
have we haven't started talking about much is
40:24
that i mean we have with some specific customers
40:27
but uh you know we do have the ability to run
40:33
our product into cgx now oh yeah so we've definitely
40:37
started down that road with uh some customers
40:41
that have requested it so it'll be exciting to
40:45
see Just kind of how that evolves because we
40:49
haven't had access to a concentrated pellet line
40:51
in the past, and now we do. And to a very fine
40:55
one at that. Yeah, no, they're getting really
40:57
great feedback on that product. Yeah, that's
41:00
one thing we didn't talk about is just kind of
41:02
like how things went this year, first year with
41:05
Crosby. I was thinking we should probably just,
41:08
we should do like an actual year one, like get
41:12
Christine or Blake on here. That'd be good. Yeah.
41:16
Write that down, Liz. Yep. Yep. Write that down.
41:19
Done. All right, well. Good. I thought that was
41:22
good. I thought that was fun. We needed just
41:24
kind of a rando fun one. No dirt, no flowers.
41:27
Fun. Episode 14? Mm -hmm. In the books. See you
41:33
next time. Bye. Hi, everyone. Andy Roy here again.
41:39
I just wanted to chime in and give a little more
41:41
details about the fun hop experiences we have
41:43
coming up this coming year. The whole goal of
41:46
the hop experience is to showcase and basically
41:50
kick the tires on fun new experimentals that
41:53
Latitude 46 and the Crosby Hop breeding programs
41:55
have that we are excited to share with the brewers
41:58
and see how they perform in beers. Our first
42:02
hop experience of the year will be in San Diego,
42:04
hosted at Society Brewing on January 13th, beginning
42:07
at 5 p .m. It's going to be very exciting. We
42:10
have a lot of fun experimentals to share with
42:12
everybody. We have brewers from San Diego and
42:15
the LA area participating. As of now, we have
42:20
Society, Carl Strauss, Stone, Pure Project, Coronado,
42:25
Alesmith, Paperback Brewing, Highland Park Brewing,
42:30
with some other exciting ones coming as well.
42:32
For all those in San Diego and LA area, please
42:35
come and join us. It is going to be on January
42:37
13th, 2026. and starts at 5 p .m. This is a brewer
42:41
-only event, so it'll give us a chance to kind
42:43
of just relax and talk and experience the hops,
42:46
give them little rubs, and yeah, just have a
42:48
nice, fun event. Our next one's planned to be
42:51
in Austin, Texas. As of now, the date for that
42:55
is going to be February 20th, hosted at Pine
42:57
House Brewing's Ben White location, and we'll
42:59
give more information as that develops. And if
43:01
you have any questions about the events, please
43:04
feel free to reach out to me at andy at royfarms
43:07
.com. So hope to see you all at these events,
43:10
and yeah, see you soon.