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April 13, 2018 CapitalPress.com Aliya Hall/For the Capital Press Phil Hibler with his hop plants. Hibler started growing hops as part of his physical therapy after he broke his neck. Farmer grows hops, builds pickers By ALIYA HALL For the Capital Press CROW, Ore. — Phil Hibler had been interested in hop pro- duction from a young age, but it wasn’t until after he recovered from a neck injury that he de- cided to pursue it as a business venture. “I was using (hop produc- tion) as physical therapy after I broke my neck as something to get me back into real life,” Hibler said. “I was always in- trigued by (hops). It’s a fun way of meeting new people. I like to try new things; repetition is boring.” It’s been three years since Hibler established his compa- ny, Little Hill Hops. As a small producer, Hibler is working to supply local breweries with fresh hops to fill an immedi- ate need. Little Hill Hops also pelletizes and vacuum seals its hops and offers these services to other hop farmers. Hibler wants to be involved in the manufacturing process as well, having built his own hop picker from a concept that the University of Vermont shared online. He plans on building more and selling them on con- tract to other small hop produc- ers. Having engineered tele- scopes before his injury, Hibler was up to the challenge. “If there was a test to take for astronomy or different physics, I could ace it, I’m pret- ty sure,” he said. The initial machine took three years to build, due to Hibler’s perfecting of it. He said that now, however, to build the same machine, it would take around 40 hours. “We built it several different times beginning to end,” Hibler said. “The thing about our ma- chine is it does three vines a minute, and that’s comparable to a machine much, much big- ger, (and) much more expen- sive.” The interest in Little Hill Hops from investors came quickly. One of the doctors that Hibler was referred to, Jay Chappell, brought in his family, as well as his friend Jeff Paulsen, who is also a colleague. Little Hill Hops has since had two more rounds of investors, and sells its hops exclusively to Coldfire Brewery in Eugene, Ore., which has been involved from the beginning. “It just kind of clicked,” Chappell said. “When Phil first got me and my family excited we thought, ‘Oh, let’s grow these things.’ But the more we talked with the Hughes broth- ers at Coldfire the more we re- alized, ‘Wait, there’s a lot more to it than that.’ They want a pelletized product that has to be pelletized a certain way.” Hibler’s pelletizing equip- ment is from Lawson Mills Biomass Solutions and it pro- cesses at a lower temperature, which removes fear of the hops being burned during the pro- cess. Little Hill Hops charges $2 per pound for the basic ser- vice, and $2.75 if a client adds the packaging service. Chappell said it is “a two- phase business.” In late August through October the compa- ny will focus on growing the hops and offering pelletizing services for local brewers, and then in winter Hibler will manufacture pickers on con- tract. ONV18-3/101 9
