This fall, Alaska Air Cargo will fly about 9,000 pounds of fresh-harvested Pacific Northwest hops to four cities across the country, building on our four-year farm-to-air-to-glass partnership with global supplier Yakima Chief Hops and making it possible for beer connoisseurs far and wide to savor the unique seasonal taste of fresh hops beers.
The first 1,680 pounds of this year’s hops traveled straight from a predawn late-August harvest at Coleman Agriculture’s farm in Oregon’s Willamette Valley via refrigerated truck to our Alaska Air Cargo station at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), and then flew nonstop to Minneapolis (MSP). The hops — a Strata varietal developed by Indie Hops — were transported to Surly Brewing Co.’s St. Paul warehouse for local brewers to pick up and add to their brews the same day.
This September, we will carry three more bulk shipments of hops to Austin (AUS), Denver (DEN) and San Diego (SAN) — all arriving at their destinations within 24 to 36 hours of harvest at Loftus Ranches in Washington state or Coleman in Oregon.
These hubs coordinated by Yakima Chief will enable 39 breweries around the U.S. to produce fresh hops beers, a style rarely crafted outside the Northwest because commercial-scale quantities of hops are difficult to transport long distances without sacrificing quality.
“We are excited to use the hubs to open up a broader market for fresh whole cone hops by introducing them to microbreweries around the country,” said Sara Soules, Yakima Chief’s inside sales coordinator, who managed the planning and execution of this year’s “Fresh Hop Air” program. The hubs are an extension of the “Fresh Hops Fly” collaborations with individual breweries that Alaska Air Cargo, Yakima Chief and Bale Breaker Brewing Company have produced together since 2022. This year’s “Fresh Hops Fly 4” will include collaborations with Half Acre Beer Co. in Chicago (ORD) and Highland Park Brewery in Los Angeles (LAX).
Indie Hops also relies on us to ship fresh hops out of Portland (PDX), and this year has shipped more than 5,000 pounds to brewers around the country.
“Hops are a highly perishable good and a lot of the logistics that Alaska Air Cargo is helping us with for the collabs and now the hubs have been vetted through their processes of shipping fish all over the world.”
– Sara Soules, Yakima Chief Hops inside sales coordinator
Our cargo teams protect the cold-chain integrity throughout the hops air-freight journey, keeping the hops cold from drop-off to pick-up. “When the flight lands, and the hops are still green and cold, it’s almost as if the brewers went to the farm and picked up like our Pacific Northwest brewers,” Soules said. “They’re getting that Pacific Northwest experience in their location, which is pretty hard to find.”
Ben Smith, Surly Brewing’s vice president of brewing operations, said his Minneapolis team was excited to be among the first hosts for the inaugural “Fresh Hop Air” hubs. Surly has produced fresh hop beers in the past, but the challenge and expense of transporting fresh hops has kept them off their menu for several years. This year the hubs model enabled Surly to produce two different styles of fresh hop beers: WET, a wet-hopped IPA the team has made previously, as well as a Raw IPA, which is a no-boil hazy IPA. The beers will be ready in time for Surly’s Darkness Day event on October 4.
“To have a wet hop beer is to taste beer as fresh you can have it,” Smith said. “Being in the Midwest, folks just don’t typically have that exposure.”
Next year, Soules’ goal to continue growing Yakima Chief’s hops hubs to reach more destinations in the Alaska and Hawaiian Air Cargo network. “I would pick those destinations Alaska has coolers at and we know we have a good market to reach,” she said. “We pride ourselves on our hops here, and I feel like the more people we can reach, the better.”
Alaska and Hawaiian Air Cargo: Connections to the world
Together, Alaska and Hawaiian Air Cargo reach 130-plus cargo destinations around the world — including new daily nonstop service between Seattle and Tokyo Narita (NRT). Nonstop service between Seattle and Seoul Incheon (ICN) starts September 12, 2025, and seasonal service between Honolulu and Auckland (AKL) returns in November.
With more than 90 years of experience carrying vital shipments to remote communities, our air cargo teams share deep connections to the places where we live, work and fly.
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