[Leica] Tour of Hops Warehouse

[Aram Langhans]

I was out shoot around some of the fruit warehouses yesterday in search of doors and windows.  I was stopped by the owner of Hollingberry Hops.  He was just wondering what we were doing.  After a brief conversation, he mentioned his son liked to take photos, so he went off and sent Will out.  We had a great conversation.  Turns out he knows quiet a few of my former students.  He then said there were many interesting doors inside, and proceeded to take me into the depths of the warehouse where they process, package and store hops.  For those who do not know, Yakima produces 80% of the US hops, 2/3 of which is exported to other countries.  Only Germany matches this production, some years more, some years less, depending on weather.

So, we went through cold rooms and storage rooms and equipment rooms.  Learned the history of the building which was built in 1926, and the Hollingberry family has owned it since 2003.  We went outside and chatted a bit more, then he said the heck with his work, and took me into another building for another historic tour.  I think we were together almost 2 hours.  I did not get a chance to see the building where they were actually processing the hops.  Maybe another day.  It was a very interesting day, to say the least.  There are hops farms just to the south of our house, and when they harvest in the fall, there is quite an aroma.  I was glad to see this aspect of the agricultural chain.

Here are a few shots from the buildings.

This is an old compressor coil setup that is not in use.  Lots of equipment is not in use any more as they have installed newer more efficient stuff, but they leave as much of the old as possible because both dad and son re very much into the history of the buildings they own.

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/s16/HW/Hollingberry+Hops-8137-2.jpg.html  It looks out of focus, but it is not.  View it large to see why.

An empty storage room where the raw hops are brought in the fall.
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/s16/HW/Hollingberry+Hops-8116-2.jpg.html

One of the many interesting doors in the place.
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/s16/HW/Hollingberry+Hops-8116-2.jpg.html

More later.

Comments welcome.

Aram



Aram Langhans
(Semi) Retired Science Teacher
& Unemployed photographer

“The Human Genome Project has proved Darwin more right than Darwin himself would ever have dared dream.” James D. Watson