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.
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