Pink Boots Hop Selection

Yesterday we had the pleasure of hosting the first ever Pink Boots Hop Blend selection here in the Yukon!   Each year, Pink Boots Society members from around the world get to select the hop varieties that go into making the next years' hop blend.  The hop blend put out by Yakima Chief Hops each year, is a major fundraiser for the Pink Boots Society, as Yakima Chief donates $3 from each pound sold.  We've used the Pink Boots Hop Blend for the past three years in our Women's Day Brew of Witch Craft IPA. This years' blend is the 6th annual blend to be released.

 

 

As Canada only has one Pink Boots Chapter, the Canadian Chapter was allotted 6 hop blend kits to distribute, and Winterlong applied and was drawn at random.  We quickly reached out to all the local breweries to invite any of their female, non-binary, female-identifying folks to join our team for a fun hop selection event.  In the end, we ended up with 11 of us with representation from 4 of the 5 breweries in the Yukon - Winterlong, Yukon Brewing, Woodcutter's Brewing, and Polarity Brewing.  We brought diverse representation from the brewing industry, covering owners, to brewers, to front of house staff, and marketing and sponsorship coordinators.

 

 

We received the 14 (top secret) hop samples, and got sniffing!  Yakima Chief Hops provided Sensory Information and Ballots to assess each hop.  It was a great learning opportunity for all of us and we narrowed down our selection to our top seven varieties and submitted that to the Canadian Pink Boots Chapter to compile. We can't wait to see what the final blend comes down to and brew with it in 2023!