Ralph Woodall Oral History Interview, March 28, 2017

Partial Transcript: So we'll just start with your name, where we are at...

Segment Synopsis: Woodall provides an overview of his upbringing in and around Yakima, Washington, and notes his father's occupation as an artist focusing on agricultural products, specifically hops and apples. Being raised in Yakima, Ralph went through the St. Joseph grade school, before transitioning into East Valley High School, which was nicknamed Hop High because it was located right in the hop fields.
He was introduced to hop harvesting during his Freshman year of high school when a local hop farmer asked for extra labor, and he was tasked with the night shift cutting the vines down. One night during his shift, his brother accidentally slashed him with a sickle, sending him to the hospital requiring seven stitches.
Woodall graduated from Western Washington University in 1975, during the harvest season he would work and save money to go back to school. Then in 1983 he was hired by the Washington State Hop lab where he would travel around the lower valley collecting hop samples to run tests on.

Partial Transcript: So that sounds like a lot of small companies were operating into the early 80's?

Segment Synopsis: Woodall breaks down the various existing hops companies in the early 1980's, characterizing who the major players were and how the smaller companies fit in. He shares about the international corporations they did business with all over the globe.
As the hop industry continued to grow, they were doing a lot more traveling to brew festivals, national brewers meetings, and conducting more hop selections.
Regardless of size, the biggest concern they faced from brewers was hop quality. The biggest variance between the large brewers and the small brewers was the size of their purchases. In 1999, they witnessed an uptick in mergers and buyouts of international business which they felt an impact by a reduction in size from the amount of buyers, effecting the demand for hop suppliers.
Woodall shares that the by 1997 he had worked his way up to Director of Operations.

Partial Transcript: The hop industry has always gone through fluctuations in acreage up acreage down, demand up demand down..

Segment Synopsis: Woodall shares about the ebbs and flows of the hop industry, noting how the required acreage, the hop pricing, and hop demand is constantly changing. He moves forward to share about the specifics changes he witnessed in various years, paying specific attention to the crop yields of 1983-84 and 2007.
The relationship between Yakima Chief and Hop union and their competition was explained, and what ultimately lead to their merger in the summer of 2014.

Partial Transcript: Then my title went from Director of Craft Brewing Sales to the Senior Customer Liaison. The new organizational structure resulted in an influx in regional sales reps, and diminished the need for Woodall to travel around the country. He considered it a blessing to not have to travel anymore because of how quickly things were changing at HQ, and he felt it necessary to be in the middle of it.
Their expansion resulted in International sales where they had offices in Belgium and China. He moves forward to talk about the progressions made in cutting through the vines.

Segment Synopsis: Woodall shares about his transition from the sales world to finance and reviewing contracts and quotes.

Partial Transcript: I imagine that part of that perspective comes from being in a place where families either farm or pick or are involved in agricultural labor for generations.

Segment Synopsis: Woodall shares about the impact ancestry roots in agriculture had on the generations that followed. He expresses his gratitude for the improvements made in technology and technique that have enabled more efficient ways to farm hops.
He moves forward to talk about the zombie schedule he worked early in his career, starting at 6am to 6pm, take a break and start again at 6 and work till midnight.

Partial Transcript: The breeding programs with Washington State and Oregon State...

Segment Synopsis: Ralph talks about the relationship between the State of Washington and the State of Oregon and their hop breeding programs, the collaboration resulting in a much larger variety in strains, specifically in comparison to when Woodall first got involved in the industry.
He moves forward to share about the various locations throughout the Pacific Northwest that were known for growing hops, mentioning Hermiston, Grants Pass, and locations in Northern California.
The weather surrounding hops farms play a large role in determining the yield of the crop on any given year. Woodall explains how maintaining multiple locations to grow hops serves to be beneficial when weather negatively effects a given location.

Partial Transcript: I was curious about the period in the 90's when the micro brewers and the macro brewers came in and they had different needs..

Segment Synopsis: Woodall shares about the early differences he noticed in the approach to the hops between micro and macro breweries. First and foremost, all brewers main priority was the quality of the hops. He explains that craft brewers were much more brewer oriented because they were purchasing in much lower volumes, so they wanted to ensure what they picked was more consistent.
He speaks about the cleanliness of the hops, and how the cleaner the hops were, the more buyers were willing to pay for them.
He moves forward to touch on the Hop Quality Group, who are responsible for monitoring the quality of hops that are produced and sold.

Partial Transcript: Changing of the Guard Times...

Segment Synopsis: Ralph talks about what he coins as the changing of the guard time, referring to the Northwest supply point who provided the Northwest breweries with hops. In this era there was an abundance of mergers and buyouts of various breweries, specifically noting the Miller-Coors merger.
The Master Brewers Association relates to the perspective of quality control, creating a sense of camaraderie, and allowing them to gather and discuss technical information. The association also provides a platform for networking, allowing growers and brewers to come in contact for potential business ventures.

Partial Transcript: Over time, getting together some of the stories about Burt Grant...

Segment Synopsis: Woodall briefly shares some stories, one pertaining to an individuals prediction of the fall of the macro breweries in the Northwest. Another was about the nature of the early meetings consisting of so many different varieties of beers.

Partial Transcript: I want to take a minute to share some photos

Segment Synopsis: Ralph concludes the interview by showing some images that represent the history of hops in the Pacific Northwest.