We’re honored to announce that we’ve teamed up with the Michael James Jackson Foundation (MJF) to provide a brand-new hop blend, hand-selected by the MJF board. This blend supports the MJF’s mission to fund scholarship awards for people of color working in the brewing and distilling trades. We believe that growing the future of brewing starts by cultivating talent and creating opportunities for those who will continue to push our industry forward.

MJF: Changing the face of brewing

Founded by Garrett Oliver—author and Brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery—the Michael James Jackson Foundation is dedicated to increasing access and opportunity for brewers and distillers of color. Since launching in 2020, the foundation has awarded more than 50 scholarships to help aspiring professionals further their education and build lasting careers. Thanks to MJF support, more students of color attended the venerable Siebel Institute of Technology in a single recent year than in the entire previous decade. As Oliver puts it, “the MJF is about genuine and lasting change.”

Courtesy of the MJF

The MJF’s visual identity also carries a deep message. Its badge is inspired by the ukhamba, the traditional brewing pot of the Zulu people of South Africa. The Egyptian figures depicted in the MJF logo remind us that brewing has been a global tradition for millennia, belonging to all cultures and people.

Creating the MJF Hop Blend

We were incredibly excited to collaborate with the MJF on their first-ever hop blend. In November 2024, Haas team members from the commercial, sensory, brewing, and marketing teams teamed up with the MJF board, bringing 16 hop varieties for board members to evaluate. These hops were presented by variety and without origin or lot details to reduce geographic and grower bias.

The selection process

Board members first evaluated each hop individually, then created their own trial blends to share with the group. Each blend was recreated and homogenized using fresh samples, anonymized with blinding codes, and re-evaluated for a second round of feedback. After narrowing the field to a few finalist blends, the board selected the winning blend: Elani^®, El Dorado^®, Citra^®, and Citra LupoMAX^®.

Following the selection, our brewing solutions team created a initial blend by combining the four chosen varieties for preliminary sensory analysis and test brews at the Haas Innovations Brewery. By February 2025, the final hop blend was processed and packaged featuring a special MJF/Haas collaboration logo.

The result is a dynamic hop blend with citrus, tropical, and floral notes. It plays well with other hops in a recipe but can also shine on its own in hop-forward pale ales and IPAs.

MJF brew day

On March 12, 2025, Haas joined MJF scholarship awardee Richard Koilor, co-owner and head brewer of Two Locals Brewing in Philadelphia, to brew a collaboration beer using the MJF hop blend. With the help of a few other MJF board members and scholarship awardees, Richard brewed a hazy IPA, using the MJF blend for 100% of the hop bill.

This beer will be featured at the 2025 Craft Brewers Conference in Indianapolis, where both the hop blend and collaboration brew will be available for attendees to experience firsthand. We’re excited to see how other brewers use the MJF hop blend and encourage all of our beer industry peers to get involved with the foundation and support their mission.

The future is built on collaboration and inclusion

The MJF hop represents more than just a new blend of hops to help you brew great beer. It also represents a commitment to fostering equity, supporting talent, and ensuring that the brewing industry continues to evolve and reflect the future we aspire to create. We are proud to partner with MJF to shape the future of brewing, one scholarship and one innovative—and delicious—beer at a time.

The MJF hop blend is available exclusively through Haas and Yakima Valley Hops. Contact your Haas representative or send us an email for purchasing information.

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To learn more about the MJF and how you can support its mission, visit themjf.org.

Read the press release here.