Ian Edwards with some of his hops. Picture: PAUL SCAMBLER
Ian Edwards's work will leave a bitter, albeit much-coveted, taste in your mouth.
The Branxholm farmer grows hops - female flowers that are a critical ingredient in beer, adding a bitter, tangy flavour.
While Mr Edwards has seen dozens of hops farms close throughout Tasmania since he took over the family farm in 1970, his business is still going strong - and it seems this year's harvest will be another success.
Yesterday, Mr Edwards, his son Clint and 30 casual workers were in the early stages of the farm's annual harvest, which kicked off on Wednesday and is expected to last three weeks.
``It's looking like a pretty good crop. You don't really know until you count the last bale, the first one doesn't mean much, but I'm pretty happy with it so far,'' Mr Edwards said.
``We've got 30 acres of hops here . . . that would go towards about 450 million stubbies, with about 5000 stubbies to each kilogram.''
Yesterday, workers brandishing blades were standing in cranes pulled by tractors, reaching to lop off one green vine at a time.
Mr Edwards said there were 21,600 vines in total, with about 3240 harvested each day.
He said the chopped vines were taken to a large picking machine, which separated the hops from the vines.
``The hops then go to a multi-tiered kiln, where heat and very strong fan blows through them - we need to get them to eight to 10 per cent moisture, and that usually takes about four or five hours for each lot,'' he said.
Meanwhile, in a spectacle that Mr Edwards said distracted and delighted visitors, the leaves were taken up a conveyor belt to be dumped on a flock of excited sheep, who battled for what they saw as a tasty treat.
``They climb on top of each other and form a pyramid; there are 500 sheep and they do get to the top of the belt, it's about 30 feet high,'' Mr Edwards said.
He said the hops would be taken to Hop Products Australia's Bushy Park and Victorian sites, where they would be priced based on the yield and quality of the hops, before they were sold to breweries.
Mr Edwards said the hops industry had been fairly good to him, and it had been many years since he had a bad season.
He said other farmers hadn't been so lucky, with only three hops producers left in Tasmania - down from his early years as a hops farmer, when by his estimates, there were about 50.
``There used to be 700 acres of hops in the North East, now we're down to just 100,'' he said.
``Our yields are up with the world average and it's survival of the fittest, that's why we've survived - that, and location, location, location.''