Shelley and Eric Desmarais Talk About Life Among the Hop Fields

Drink Beer, Think Beer With John Holl

Host John Hall visits CLS Farms in Moxie, Washington, to interview Eric and Shelley Desmarais about the 2026 hop harvest. The episode explor

Key takeaways

• Eric Demery is a fourth-generation hop farmer at CLS Farms with a degree in agricultural economics from Washington State University.
• The 2026 hop crop appears average in yield but high in quality, with recent rain helping to clear smoke concerns.

Main topics

• 2026 Hop Harvest Status
• Impact of Wildfire Smoke on Agriculture

Notable quotes

When the aqi gets higher, everybody's, you know, everybody's ears kind of perk up a little bit here.

Conclusion

The episode highlights the intersection of agricultural innovation and

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) All About Beer receives underwriting support from Rheingeis Brewing. They understand the importance of independent journalism in the beer space, and their support helps fund original work. Learn how you can affordably support journalists by visiting allaboutbeer.com slash support. Speaker 3 (0:25) Welcome to Drink Beer, Think Beer, the podcast that gets to the bottom of every pint. I'm John Hall, this week coming to you from CLS Farms in Moxie, Washington, where in a minute I'll be speaking with Shelley and Eric Demery about this year's crop and life on the farm. But first, if you have story ideas or guest suggestions or just want to reach out, you can get me anytime on email at johnhall at allaboutbeer.com. And you know I've been talking about this on the show for a while now, and you hear Andy at the cold open of the shows, but... The way we're able to keep bringing original content to the beer industry and to curious beer drinkers is through your support. We've created an affordable underwriting program that's easy on your budget, helps you get visibility, and is an altruistic way to directly fund writers, photographers, and editors. Please visit allaboutbeer.com slash support to learn more. When you're at the website, poke around a bit, read some of the recent articles, peruse the archives, which go all the way back to 1979, and tune into other podcasts like One Iconic Beer with Jeff Allworth, Brewer to Brewer, and the All About Beer podcast with Em Staudter and Don Tess. You won't be disappointed. You can also follow us on social media at All About Beer, where you can keep up with everything else we have going on. Now, here's a word from this episode's sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, innovators in craft beer since 1980 and still 100 % family owned. Experience the finest quality and purest ingredients in person by visiting the iconic Sierra Nevada breweries in Chico, California, where it all started, or Mills River, North Carolina, the country's only platinum lead certified production brewery. Visit sierranevada.com to learn more. Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, still family owned. Speaker 1 (2:07) operated and argued over. I Speaker 3 (2:10) had a fun couple of days touring around the Yakima, Washington area, talking with farmers, talking with brewers, trying to get a handle on what's happening with the 2026 hop crop in the Pacific Northwest. One of the must stops every time I'm out there is at CLS Farms. Eric Demery, along with his wife, Shelley, are co-owners of the farm in Moxie Washington. He's a fourth-generation hop farmer, having worked on the farm since he graduated from Washington State University with a degree in agricultural economics. His love for farming is deeply rooted in the multi-generational influence of his family. CLS Farms' progressive, forward-looking outlook focuses not only on providing brewers with the highest quality hops, but also the most current up-to-date market information. So this show is in two segments. First up with Eric, who shares insights on how 2026 is shaping up in the region and on the farm. And then on the second half, you're going to hear from Shelly talking about life during harvest. So first up, here's Eric and our conversation. We're Speaker 2 (3:16) at the beginning-ish of the harvest right Speaker 3 (3:19) now, 2026 here in Yakima Valley. How's it feeling for you? Well, Speaker 2 (3:26) I think the crop looked pretty average going into harvest. I think it's picking out that way as well. So I think quality looks really good. There were some weather concerns earlier and smoke concerns. Those have gone completely away. So, yeah. So, I mean, kind of the big thing, everybody's nervous now, both growers and brewers and hop dealers is smoke. Speaker 2 (3:52) We had a rain event last night which shut us down, but that was great because it pretty much shut all the fires down in the state here. Oh, Speaker 3 (4:00) that's okay. Yeah. So it's good with the bad and bad with the good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 2 (4:03) We were happy to see that. So, you know, I think that's kind of the ongoing concern every year is the smoke profile. But there was definitely some fires, but they were... I don't think they were going to impact us. There was definitely some smoke in the valley, but when it's higher level and from quite a ways away, it doesn't seem to impact us. But I think those concerns have been alleviated. And you all have Speaker 3 (4:30) also dialed this in over the last couple of years where you're following the air quality index and you know if it gets to a certain threshold to just shut down the kiln. Yeah, it's not Speaker 2 (4:38) perfect. You know, we don't have perfect knowledge, but when we kind of get above 150 AQI, everybody's, you know, everybody's ears kind of perk up a little bit here. And, you know, there are growers, including us, who are actively stopping. um when the aqi gets higher yeah you know we can't do that day after day after day sure many times what we find is the aqi goes up then it goes down then it goes up and it doesn't it's just kind of how the wind is blowing that day so um so yeah there's definitely a lot of attention being paid to that yeah so um Speaker 3 (5:11) i know every year people come out and they want you know the hops that they want and then there's always you know what's new or what's exciting and you know and i feel like being led by the growers is so important about, you know, hops that you all are excited, you know, after seeing them in the field, after processing them and then, you know, having these visions of, okay, like, you know, put this in your beer and here, and here's why are, as you're gearing up for a lot of folks coming through, Are there varietals this year that you're excited about talking to them about? Speaker 2 (5:42) Yeah, I think for us, the one we're the most excited about is Thora, which is... Yeah, Speaker 3 (5:47) tell me about this. Yeah, Speaker 2 (5:49) so the Hop Quality Group is a group of brewers who initially started out kind of in 2014, 15 era, maybe even