Our History

In the late 1980's, three hop farming families, the Carpenters, Smiths, and Perraults came together to form a new hop production and research farm in the heart of the Yakima Valley. In homage to hop history, they resurrected and old name and called this new venture "Yakima Chief Ranches". One of the primary goals of the new company was the development of new hop varieties. Under the direction of Charles "Chuck" Zimmermann the first crosses were made in 1988 and the resulting progeny first evaluated in 1989. These initial results were fruitful, resulting in the selection of YCR-1 (Ahtanum™), YCR-5 (Warrior®), and YCR-14 (Simcoe®), in the late 1990's.

In 2002 the owners of Yakima Chief Ranches, due to depressed hop market conditions, disbanded the production side of the business, but kept the research program and reorganized to form the company as it is know today, Select Botanicals Group, LLC (SBG). Shortly after this, SBG and John I. Haas, recognizing the value in cooperating, formed a shared venture called Hop Breeding Company, LLC. This new hop breeding powerhouse takes advantage of the resources of both companies, with all resulting varieties being released jointly.