Extracts offer powerful ways to improve brewing efficiency. They also allow brewers to enhance and even supercharge bittering, flavor, and aroma characteristics to their beers. Let’s explore the science behind Hop Extracts so that you can understand how best to use them in your brewing process.

Key Takeaways:

• What CO2 Extraction Actually Does
• Understand Different Extracts for Bittering vs Flavor vs Aroma
• How Extracts Improve Brewing and Brewery Efficiency

Chris Holden grew up on his family’s farm in Steuben County in the Southern Tier of New York. The farm was a tobacco farm in the 1800s, where his great-great-grandfather grew a small number of hops for the neighboring town of Woodhull, the marketplace for all crops in the area at the time.

In 2013, Crooked Creek Hops was established on this historic family farm, starting with just an acre and quickly expanding by another 4.5 acres two years later, with further growth about every two years. While working full-time jobs, the team marketed their hops during their days off, continually seeking new markets. In 2015, Cornell Cooperative Extension began referring other growers to Crooked Creek Hops for guidance on marketing hops to Farm Breweries and other breweries around the state and beyond. To supplement their own production, they also began purchasing hops from trusted farms in Michigan and Washington.

In 2017, Chris joined the board of the Northeast Hop Alliance, which led to the formation of the Hop Growers of New York, a state growers association that helped initiate a public hop breeding program at Cornell. In 2018, Chris co-founded the New York Hop Guild with Chuck Rhoades to support New York farms in selling high-quality hops locally and beyond. The guild quickly expanded to include a network of growers from Michigan, Washington, and Idaho, and later to international markets in New Zealand, Germany, and Slovenia.