Billy Goat Hop Farm: Bringing The Cascade Cup To Montrose

Western Colorado now finds itself on the map for growing and producing award-winning hops thanks to Billy Goat Hop Farm in Montrose and its unprecedented 2023 first-place finish in the Cascade Cup.

Photo courtesy of Billy Goat Hop Farm.

The award, which took Billy Goat Hop Farm co-owners Audrey Gehlhausen and Chris DellaBianca by surprise last February, was the first time it was given to a grower outside the hop-centric Pacific Northwest region.

“We are on cloud nine,” Gehlhausen says.

Winning the Cascade Cup is the ultimate bragging right for producing the best Cascade hops in the country. Every year, a panel composed of brewing professionals within the Hop Quality Group completes a blind analysis of Cascade hop entries from around the country. Winners are based on a host of factors, including aroma, appearance and hop analysis.

Their entry in the 2023 competition was their first since they built the farm in 2017. In fact, Gehlhausen and DellaBianca didn’t know about the competition until they attended the Hop Convention in 2022. They were present when that year’s winner of the Cascade Cup was announced.

“We didn’t even know the award existed, and we were like, ‘We should send one in next year,’” Gehlhausen recalls.

The two were unable to attend the 2023 convention when it was announced that they had won.

“Chris’s phone started blowing up,” she says. “He got a call from the founder of Russian River Brewing calling to let him know we won. Then, the founder of Ninkasi emailed congratulating us. Then, the email train followed letting us know the award was being shipped out to us. It was crazy.”

What made the Billy Goat Hop Farm Cascade hops stand out in the competition? “It was mostly aroma,” she believes. “They had a nice appearance, and the lab results were good. From my understanding, though, they smelled amazing. From the beginning, from our first year, brewers have been telling us that our Cascade reminded them of how Cascade used to be — brighter, more grapefruit, less lemongrass.”

Because the farm is small scale, measuring at 32 acres, Gehlhausen believes they can be more hands-on and attentive to the needs of the hops during the growing season in comparison to the large farms found in the Pacific Northwest. If something doesn’t look right — a potential pest, a disease, a nutrient deficiency — they have the ability to resolve the problem early. The farm produces a total of nine different hop varieties. Having the smaller scale also provides the ability to harvest each of the varieties on their ideal harvest date.

“At our scale, we can bounce variety to variety and hit them when they are ready,” Gehlhausen says. “We get our hops harvested, pelleted and into a package in a timely manner. I think that really helps.”

Billy Goat Hop Farm came to fruition in 2017 after Gehlhausen and DellaBianca decided they needed a change from the seasonal lifestyle they’d been living for close to a decade as outdoor guides at various locations in the West. With DellaBianca’s degree in environmental biology and Gehlhausen’s degree in geology, the two began brainstorming ideas for a new direction. Craft brew lovers, eventually the two settled on hops. With that in mind, they set out on a three-month, state-to-state road trip looking for a possible growing location.

“When we got to Montrose, we really liked it, because there are a lot of breweries down here, and, in general, Colorado is proud of Colorado ingredients and supports its industries,”Gehlhausen says. “We also felt being further from the Pacific Northwest would be good. How do you separate yourself from those 2,000-acre farms?”

The two found a home for their hop farm on land located just south of Montrose and began the painstaking process of building the infrastructure needed to grow hops. They dug and placed almost 2,300 poles and hung approximately 57 miles of cable 18 feet in the air from those poles. This also includes 352concreted anchors around the edges of the farm called deadmen.

“I think there was a lapse of sanity,” she says, smiling. “We dug a lot of holes both physically and financially.”

Along with the nine varieties they grow on the farm, last year they began sourcing different varieties of whole cone hops from other growers around the country, then processing them at the farm in order to provide more varieties to brewers in the area.

“This not only increases reliability but also shortens shipping times and cuts back on carbon emissions,” she explains.

Gehlhausen is excited about the future of Billy Goat Hop Farm as a destination. Besides adding a campground to the farm in the future, it is also home to Southwest Fresh Fest. This event brings breweries, food and live music to the hop farm where only fresh hop beers are served. This year’s event will be held on Sept. 23 from 2-6 p.m.

Originally published in the Summer 2023 issue of Spoke+Blossom.