Hop Harvest Q&A with Hopsteiner

Hopsteiner is one of the oldest hop breeding, growing, and trading firms around. The company was formed by S.S. Steiner in 1845 in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg. Since then, the company grew to have operations in nine regions around the world, from Germany to the Yakima Valley, and even China.

Now that the 2016 harvest is complete, I had an opportunity to ask some questions about the company, the development of new hop varieties, as well as some lessons they learned from this year’s crop.

Can you tell us a bit about Hopsteiner as a company? Of course, we see your 1845 incorporation date, so it’s obvious you’ve been around the block a few times, but you also have operations in Spain, the UK, Germany, and even China. How did those relationships come about?

As we are international in scope, we have always established a physical presence in the key hop producing and beer production regions around the world. It is important to be close to our suppliers, our growing bas