By the time hops reach the pelletisation plant they’ve been tended to in fields, picked, transported, stripped, separated, dried, baled, transported again and often cold stored in a queue for the pellet plant. Some large breweries take full ales but many others, like us (Cloudwater) rely on smaller packaging formats. The bales are heavy, but the masterful application of just the right amount of force and the anticipation of tipping points makes loading them into the pellet plant look easy.