Springtime in the Hallertau is beautiful: clean, crisp air, the smell of newly emerging greenery, the trees on the rolling hills coming to life and the sight of people out in the fields. We, members of the North American Brewers Association and the High Desert Brewers Association, recently had the pleasure of visiting the Hallertau as the guest of Anheuser-Busch. The Hallertau region of Bavaria, north and east of Munich, is the largest interconnected hop-growing region of the world. There are approximately 2000 producers on 40,000 acres in the area ranging from large to small farms with fields no larger than a couple of acres. The average size of the German hops farm is only 6.4 hectares; that's just 16 acres! These are independent farms that offer their hops for sale on their own. It's a different sort of market than that of the U.S. where there are large farms and co-ops to deal with. One of the buyers in this diverse market, the man who navigates it for Anheuser-Busch, is Dr. Willy Buholzer. It is his job to select and purchase German hops for A.B. Dr. Buholzer is also the general manager of the Busch Farm Huell. We were very fortunate to have him conduct us on a tour of the farm. Dr. Val Peacock, A.B.'s Manager of Hop Technology, accompanied us on the tour, which was hosted by Simon Archer, the farm manager and Willy Wright the farm consultant. This all-star lineup left no question unanswered and no process unexplained. The mission of the farm is to contribute to the production needs for Budweiser as well as for development and evaluation of new varieties. On the farm's 34 hectares they grow the aroma hops that are used in A.B. beers; Hallertau Mittelfrueh and Spalt Select. These are some of the same varieties that are grown at the Elk Mountain Hop Farm that A.B. has in Northern Idaho. As a matter of fact, if you follow the latitude line from the panhandle of Idaho eastward on your globe, you'll find it runs right to the Hallertau. This is not coincidence. The site in Idaho was chosen because the latitude is the same as the Hallertau and therefore the length of day is the same. Length of day is one of the important factors in the production of fine hops. Since we where there in early spring, there was not much to see in the fields. The hops were just peeking out of their winter beds barely tinting the fields green. The farmers had just gotten enough good weather to get in the fields and put up the climbing wires on their trellises. It was a very different look at a hop farm. We were shown all of the inner workings of the hop processing. Starting with the stationary combine in the barn that separates the hop cones from the vines and wire we moved through the processing. It is so much easier to see how things work without the hops moving through the process but you do miss the great aromas. We moved on to the drying rooms where the moisture content of the hops is adjusted for optimum for storage. It is an ingenious combination of ramps, conveyers, and movable floor louvers that allow the hops to be dried and moved with the minimum of damage to the cones. The hops then fall into the bailer where they are packed for shipment.