Dr. Al Haunold is a retired United States Department of Agriculture hop breeder. He ran the joint USDA-Oregon State University hop-breeding program in Corvallis for 34 years from 1965.
He arrived from the East Coast to work on the problem of downy mildew in the Cluster hop, then a workhorse of U.S. brewing, as was the Oregon Fuggle, both primarily used for bittering beer. Aroma in beer, at the time, was the preserve of fine imported varieties, at least for premium beers. Hops such as the German Hallertau and Tettnang, Czech Saaz, and various English hops.
Haunold was an Austrian immigrant who had grown up on a farm about 60 miles from Vienna. He joined the USDA after doctoral studies in Nebraska, adding to his extensive Austrian qualifications.
He is now a hale 87. After retirement he consulted in various capacities including to Indie Hops in Oregon. Former litigation attorney Roger Worthington, its founder, recognized Haunold’s great expertise. He enlisted his help for Indie Hops, a notable supplier to craft brewers. His firm also funded a hop research program to develop new varieties.
Roger Worthington now also runs Worthy Brewing in Bend, Oregon. Worthy will release this year a series of IPAs showcasing hops developed from this program.
Worthington has authored a number of key posts on the blog of Indie Hops, including this 2010 post on the development of the Cascade hop. It is most illuminating, as are other posts dealing with hops key to craft brewing that Haunold bred or helped develop when at USDA/USU.
This brief clip posted by Worthington on YouTube is a tribute to Haunold’s great importance to craft brewing history. Haunold field-tested the Cascade hop but did not breed it, that went back to 1956 in Oregon. He promoted and believed in Cascade, got it to one-acre commercialization scale, and got Coors Brewing to try it. Coors then encouraged Northwest hop growers to produce it in the amounts needed by industrial brewers.
As recounted in the 2010 post and by Haunold in a number of oral history interviews, Cascade was developed to substitute in the U.S. for the German Hallertau Mittelfruh. The latter, long used for aroma hopping in the States, might be subject to pest problems, and its price, to currency fluctuations.
On paper Cascade looked similar to Hallertau, e.g., its alpha-beta acids ratio. But it proved to have a different, distinctive aroma – via the geraniol compound (grapefruit, citric). This proved ultimately not agreeable to the large brewers. So the hop, initially grown in large amounts in Yakima Valley and peaking mid-1970s in production, seemed destined to languish.
When small Anchor Brewing in San Francisco and emerging craft brewers came calling to the USDA for ale hops, Haunold recommended Cascade. It was available, and in smaller parcels suitable for small-scale brewers. The rest is history, as Cascade proved the keynote for the craft brewing revolution to follow.
While many hops emerged later, including for the “C” series Centennial, Chinook, and Columbus, Cascade proved to be long influential. Many later hops resembled it, or close enough that a “Pacific Northwest” character was recognizable. When you taste any IPA from California to Calabria, they often share a characteristic “PNW” flavour.
Haunold later developed or had a hand in 16 cultivars including Willamette, Mt. Hood, Liberty, and Sterling, all craft brewing standbys. He also developed the high-alpha acid Nugget hop, important in industrial as well as craft brewing for its high bittering value.
To understand the state of U.S. hop-growing in 1979, i.e., pre-craft, the extract that follows is instructive, from a 1980 paper by Dr. Haunold on world hop-breeding and production. Bear in mind this is before the new hops had a noticeable impact on U.S. brewing:
The Yakima Valley of Washington, with 8,637 ha of hops in 1978, is the most important hop-growing area in the United States, followed by Oregon with 2,214 ha, Idaho with 1,081 ha, and California with 593 ha (10) (Table III). The most important U.S. hop varieties are Early Cluster, Late Cluster, English (a collective trade name for the English varieties Bullion and Brewer’s Gold), Cascade, Talisman, Fuggle, and Comet (Table III).
Systematic hop research in the United States started at Oregon State University in 1931 when most U.S. hops were grown in that state. The threat of downy mildew similar to that in Germany stimulated a crash program to combat this disease. The Cluster variety was too susceptible to this fungus, and most of Oregon’s Cluster acreage shifted to the Yakima Valley in the 1940s, to be replaced by downy-mildew-tolerant varieties such as Fuggle, Bullion, and Brewer’s Gold.
Fuggle-H, an improved selection of Fuggle, was released for commercial production in 1967 (14), followed by Fuggle-T, a colchicine-induced tetraploid Fuggle for breeding purposes (12). Cascade, an open-pollinated seedling with Fuggle and the Russian Serebrianka in its pedigree, was released as an aroma hop in 1972(4). In 1975 Comet, a high a-acids selection from a cross between a seedling of the English Sunshine and an indigenous American male hop from Utah (47), was released. Two triploid aroma varieties, Columbia and Willamette, which originated from crosses between the tetraploid Fuggle-T and selected male parents, were released in 1976 (11,13).
In the latest of Haunold’s oral interviews, recorded in August 2017, he gave a wide-ranging account of his life, interesting unto itself. For example, he discussed conditions in his part of Austria during the war and how this affected his family.
He also describes experiences in America as a young immigrant learning English (he could speak it well in three months), and some of his early scientific work (on cereals). Asked whether he found Nebraska different to home he indicated of course it was. One thing he never accustomed to was peanut butter!
He was asked quite justly whether he liked beer, as not every expert in the brewing field can be presumed to do so. He exclaimed he “always” enjoyed it, not “excessively” but with meals. Asked to explain his preferences he mentioned the Helles Bock of food and wine retailer Trader Joe, or Full Sail Amber. These are notably malty and perhaps reflected tastes acquired in Austria as a youth.
He discusses how mass-market beer has become progressively “thinner”, initially to appeal to a wider market including for women.
He notes that re-acquainting with large-selling German beers on a recent trip to Austria he was reminded of mainstream American beers of 20 or 30 years ago.
When asked his view on imported beers, he states that craft beers – he still calls them microbrewery beers – offer superior flavour.
Haunold notes that when embarking on his work he did not intend to change the taste of American beer, and the industry did not intend to either. Brewers were satisfied with the hops then available and were simply seeking substitutes due to insufficient supply especially of Oregon Fuggles, or for the reasons already mentioned relating to hop imports.
Cascade’s new flavour, while proving not of appeal to the large brewers who helped fund its development, was fortuitously picked up by the new crop of small brewers who came along. Happenstance, in other words, played a large role in Cascade’s enduring appeal and the world success of craft brewing. Al Haunold is a key link in that history.
He stands with figures and organizations such as the (U.K.’s) CAMRA consumer lobby, U.K. brewer Peter Austin/Ringwood, writer Michael Jackson, homebrewer Charlie Papazian, and U.S. brewers Fritz Maytag, Jim Koch, and Ken Grossman. All were key influences on American and world craft brewing.*
…
*American brewer Jack McAuliffe of New Albion Brewery as well.