September 26, 2025

437: Happy Birthday Simcoe! Vinnie Cilurzo and Jason Perrault Look Back on 25 Years of the Groundbreaking Hop

1 hour 22 minutes

This year marks the 25th birthday of Simcoe, and when Russian River cofounder Vinnie Cilurzo suggested recording an episode of the podcast in Yakima to celebrate it, we weren’t going to say no. Rather than sit around a table, we took to the experimental hop rows at Perrault Farms and recorded while walking the field. The result is a wide-ranging conversation that covers history, business, agriculture, creativity, pivotal craft beers, hop evolution, and more.

In this episode, Cilurzo and Perrault discuss:

how Simcoe was bred by pioneering hop breeder Chuck Zimmerman

its establishment on three family farms at the time—Carpenter, Perrault, and Smith

how Simcoe brought the families’ kids back to the farms

developing the Pliny the Elder recipe around this hop

the evolution of Simcoe over the past quarter century

virus-free Simcoe and its flavor and yield impacts

the impact of pick date on Simcoe flavor and aroma

Simcoe’s relationship with Mosaic

selecting Simcoe and processing it into modern flowable formats

how Pliny the Elder and the new Simcoe 25 beer use Simcoe in new formats

And more.

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