When last heard from (that would be the Winter issue), photographer Frank Barnett and I had our noses in a brewer’s cut at Indie Hops. A few days later, we were being shown around the Food Sciences Pilot Plant by Professor Tom Shellhammer at Oregon State University.

As he explained, a gift from Jim Bernau, owner of Nor’Wester Brewery and president of Willamette Valley Vineyards, served as a catalyst for starting the Fermentation Sciences program in 1996. One of the first things I spotted, as I glanced around at the stainless-steel fermentation tanks, was one labeled “I.H. Meridian.” You may remember from Part 1 that Indie Hops and the Goschie Hops Farm, both on Meridian Road, were responsible for resurrecting a hop variety that turned out to be something quite unexpected.

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