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| -Obits- |
| Hops 'guru' Francis Lloyd Rigby dies at 89 in Yakima |
| 2008-06-11 |
| He was an idea man, an inventor, a hops "guru" who never stopped exploring alternative uses for the bitter herb that flavors beer. Hops chemist Francis Lloyd Rigby, a pioneer in the hop industry, died Saturday at his Yakima home. He was 89. "The contributions he made to this industry were very instrumental to the way we do things now," said Ann George, administrator of the Washington Hop Commission in Moxee. "He developed some of the things that are really the basics of what we do." Rigby's career at Yakima's John I. Haas Inc. spanned 30 years. He started there in 1966, helping oversee the construction of the company's hop-extraction plant. Later, he developed commercial processes to turn hop extract into refined hop products that increased the efficiency of hops in beer. Rigby, who went by Lloyd, his middle name, ultimately became the technical director at Haas. He traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia, visiting breweries, and worked as an independent researcher in the hop industry long after his retirement in 1996 at age 77. In fact, he was working as recently as a month ago, researching new uses for hops right up until nearly the end of his life, said Jim Stoffer, a retired executive vice president for Haas. "He was definitely a pioneer in hops processing and new uses for hops," Stoffer said. "He was always inventing something to further hops." |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #3 I've got this theory that beer kept European civilization alive, just as tea kept Chinese civilization alive. Putrid drinking water would have have wiped out or massively decreased both, otherwise. Anyhow, Vale cobber, RIP |
| Posted by: tipper 2008-06-11 12:37 |
| #2 I shall have a beer in his honor. Seems only right. |
| Posted by: Mike 2008-06-11 06:50 |
| #1 Most beer styles call for two additions of hops, one at the beginning of the boil (for bittering) and another at the very end (for flavor and aroma). His developments for high-alpha hops were very much a boon to homebrewers. These varieties permit the use of far less hops for bittering beer, allowing the homebrewer to get away with a smaller hop bill and more latitude in use of flavoring hops. Further advances in hybrids which owe their existence to this guy's work are resulting in better multi-use hops that have high alpha content and at the same time have excellent flavoring and aroma characteristics, something that was vanishingly rare in any variety until a short time ago. The American hops industry is far advanced relative to other hop growing nations, most of which are content to grow varieties which have been around for centuries (Australia and NZ are exceptions). |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2008-06-11 06:49 |