When Cade Jobe thinks about the impact of wildfire smoke, he starts with a simple image: a map of the western United States in August—and it’s on fire.
"Wildfire smoke is impacting lots of agricultural systems, especially in the West and Northwest," Jobe said. "My focus is on beer and brewing, and hops are one of the main ingredients in beer. Beer gets much of its flavor from hops."
Jobe, a PhD candidate in food science and technology at Oregon State University, is diving deep into the effects of wildfire smoke on hops—an issue that has increasingly concerned both growers and brewers. With more than 99% of U.S. hops grown in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, regions heavily impacted by wildfires, understanding this problem is critical for the beer industry.
"Hops are a perennial plant, which means they grow back every year, and, unfortunately, they get harvested during fire season," the Oregon ARCS Scholar explained. "Plants can’t move around. They're stuck there. They can’t just walk away from the smoke."
Jobe’s research focuses on three key areas: two related to growers and one to brewers. First, he investigates how smoke affects hops while they are still growing in the field. Second, he looks at how smoke exposure during the post-harvest drying process—known as kilning—might impact quality.
"The drying process uses ambient air that's pulled in by giant fans. So if it’s smoky outside, that smoky air is being blown directly onto the hops," he said. "We’re asking, ‘Is that when the smoke taint happens?’"
On the brewer side, Jobe’s research explores what happens if smoke-tainted hops make it into beer production.
"If you have a hop that is tainted with smoke, does it just go in the compost? Or can you use a small percentage of smoky hops to bury it? Are there places in the brewing process where smoky hops don’t negatively impact the quality?" he said.
One surprising finding from his work: smoke-tainted beer doesn’t always taste like a campfire or burnt wood.
"It really tastes like smoked meat, beef jerky, or deli ham," Jobe said. "It’s not what you might expect when you hear ‘smoke taint.’"
The potential implications of Jobe’s research are industry-wide.
"Without hops, there’s no beer," he said. "Even the big guys, like Budweiser, use hops. The entire industry is looking at this."
In response to the challenges posed by smoke exposure, growers and brewers have united through organizations like the Hop Research Council to fund research and find solutions.
Jobe’s path to hop research wasn’t a straight one. His passion for the brewing industry started at home. This led Jobe to make a bold career change. He left is career as a lawyer and started working at a brewery before moving across the country to Oregon State, one of the few universities in the United States with a brewing science program.
The transition wasn’t without its challenges. As a second-career student and a parent to two young children, Jobe has had to balance rigorous research with family life. ARCS Foundation funding has played a key role in making that possible.
"I’m a student parent," he said. "I've got a three-year-old and a six-year-old. The cost of being a parent is just insane in this country—daycare, summer care, health insurance, all of it. ARCS support has helped with that. It’s given me the extra financial stability to know that we can pay for those kinds of things."
Looking ahead, Jobe hopes that his work will not only answer fundamental questions about smoke taint but also offer practical solutions for both growers and brewers.
"It doesn't seem like wildfires are going away anytime soon," he said. "If my research helps create a roadmap for the industry to navigate this problem, that's a legacy I'd be proud of."
