Last month Chuck Silva, longtime brewmaster at San Diego’s Green Flash Brewing, announced he was resigning to start his own brewery. Before his departure from Green Flash, however, Silva went on a journey with Patrick McIlhenney, brewmaster at Alpine Beer Co.
They were searching for America’s best hops, a quest that took them from various farms and distributors in the Yakima Valley to a dimly lit room, where they smelled, analyzed and scrutinized several varieties of hops.
There to capture all of this was Nicholas Gingold, a Los Angeles-based photographer and beer journalist and the author of California BrewMasters. You’ll find a full account of this journey and a stunning collection of photos in his special report for All About Beer Magazine, “In Search of America’s Best Hops.”