Footprints® Quality Assurance Intern

Each year, Yakima Chief Ranches (YCR) recruits college-aged men and women from across the nation to move out to Yakima, Washington for the summer to form the backbone of FOOTPRINTS®, our quality and sustainability program. As part of a group, interns will be scouting our commercial and experimental hop fields for male/off-type plants, mildews, mites, and assisting with agronomic field trials. Being 21 or older, having good boots, a passion for hops and beer, and most of all, a great attitude, are the only requirements for employment. 

While most of your time will be spent on quality assurance in the hop fields, you will also be exposed to a myriad of educational modules and enrichment opportunities which will provide you with a holistic understanding of the hop industry. Seminars on hop breeding, supply chain management, hop chemistry, pilot batch brewing, sensory analysis, and hop processing will be interspersed throughout the regular regimen of field scouting. 

There will be no shortage of long, hot, and tiring days, but your contributions will be integral in maintaining our position as the brewing industry's preferred provider of the world's finest hops.  

YCR actively works to facilitate each intern's entrance into the career path that best fits their interests and skills, helping to bolster the farming and brewing communities with young, bright minds. Since the inception of the FOOTPRINTS® program in 2012, YCR QA interns have secured career positions at organizations such as Lagunitas Brewing, B.T. Loftus Ranches, Perrault Farms, Yakima Chief Hops, JI Haas, and Yakima Chief Ranches.