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Kate Fisher from Foothill Hops in Munnsville in central New York state speaks during the Northeast Hop Alliance’s Annual Meeting and Fall Hop Conference, held Saturday at Revolution Hall, owned by Brown’s Brewing Co. in downtown Troy. (Jeff Couch / The Record)
TROY — Dating back to the 19th century, New York state produced the majority of hops in the world at that time, essential for brewing beer, with Rensselaer County contributing to this agricultural endeavor.
Now the both the Northeast and New York state are enjoying a revival as growers of hops, as evidenced by the gathering of current and prospective growers as well as educators at the Northeast Hop Alliance’s Annual Meeting and Fall Hop Conference, hosted by Brown’s Brewing Company on Saturday.
“Certainly we grew hops here 100 years ago and that stopped when Prohibition came around, among other reasons,” said event organizer Steve Miller, a hops specialist at the Cornell University Cooperative Extension. “At one point in the 1880s, New York state produced 90 percent of the hops in the country and that was over 21 million pounds of dry hops a year; that was a lot for that time for the population of the United States at that time.”
Nearly 200 attended the conference for current and prospective growers of hops which focused on re-establishing commercial specialty hops both in New York and the Northeast.
“This has gone great,” Miller said of the professional-level conference. “We’ve got people who are growing as many as 10 acres now and we’ve got a whole bunch of people here who are planning on growing next year. There’s a good mixture of people here, it’s exciting.”
Topics included the planting, growing and harvesting hops as well as financial and scientific resources to support growers and local craft brewers, including Brown’s, which grows some of its own hops.
“I’d say half of the people here are growing some hops,” Miller said. “The other half in some cases they’re farmers — we’ve got some people who have vineyards, some are vegetable growers, we’ve also got a lot of people who are home growers who are interesting in furthering their career and their business. There’s a pretty wide mixture of people at this conference that are interested in growing hops.”
The Northeast Hop Alliance’s overall mission “is to enhance the cultural heritage of hop production through education, agri-tourism and agricultural preservation.”
Speakers at the day-long event at Brown’s Brewing Company’s Revolution Hall included hop researchers from the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Cornell University’s Cooperative Extension, the University of Vermont Extension and from as far way as Oregon State University.
“There’s a lot of stuff that we and other brewers are getting out of this in terms of the technical and science side of hop growing,” said Gregg Stacy, vice president and director of marketing and sales for Brown’s Brewing Co. “But from a business standpoint what we’re really interested in is what kind of resources we need for harvesting, for packaging and preserving the product which will help us year round.” Continued…
The brewers on hand included several from the Northeast, including from Vermont and Massachusetts.
“It’s great how we’re focusing on growing the hops industry right here in the Northeast,” Stacy said. “This is great because of the camaraderie between the brewers who came here from across the region and an event like this is great not only from being able to see other people in the industry, but we can also learn from each other, share stories and take pride in what we’re doing.”
Locally, Brown’s Brewing Co. brews about 4,000 barrels of its own craft-made beer per year on site and receives most of its hops from Groveside Naturals Farm in Pittstown as well as from a three-acre spread of hops fields on the Brown’s 110-acre family farm in West Hoosick, both in Rensselaer County.
The Browns have plans to open a new product brewery in a former factory building along the Walloomsac River in North Hoosick, from which they plan to initially brew about 20,000 barrels a year.
“The enthusiasm has grown in the craft beer industry,” Kelly Brown said. “While the beer industry is struggling a bit right now as a whole, craft beer sales are up by 15 percent overall in the industry and I think that number is going to go up higher and higher. I think it’s important to a lot of farmers that brewers use local hops, people are proud of that. And I think they should be because there are so many things that we’re getting from all over the country and all over the world, to have something from your own land is a wonderful thing.”
Historically, western New York state was the largest hop producing region in the world until the early 1900s when a mold and aphid blight destroyed the crop and hop growing in the United States moved to the Pacific Northwest.
The Northeast Hop Alliance is “dedicated to the rebirth of this profitable agricultural segment that thrived in this area for nearly 150 years,” as New York currently only has about 30 acres of hop crops.
Saturday’s program included the Northeast Hop Alliance’s annual meeting and was concluded with a grower/brewer/researcher panel. Earlier in the day, the agenda included presentations and discussions on the topics of soils and fertility for Eastern grown hops; trellises and getting started; factors in growing quality hops; managing diseases and pests in the hopyard; small scale hops processing; managing weeds in the hopyard; grazing sheep in the hopyard; and new hop harvesters for Eastern growers.
“There are also a ton of smaller breweries in the area that need hops as well, so the potential here is exciting,” Stacy said. “ … I think it’s important for us and other breweries in the industry in the region to get as many of our brewing ingredients from New York state.”
For more information about the growth of hop production both in New York state and the Northeast, visit www.nehopalliance.org or call 315-684-3001. Continued…
TROY — Dating back to the 19th century, New York state produced the majority of hops in the world at that time, essential for brewing beer, with Rensselaer County contributing to this agricultural endeavor.
Now the both the Northeast and New York state are enjoying a revival as growers of hops, as evidenced by the gathering of current and prospective growers as well as educators at the Northeast Hop Alliance’s Annual Meeting and Fall Hop Conference, hosted by Brown’s Brewing Company on Saturday.
“Certainly we grew hops here 100 years ago and that stopped when Prohibition came around, among other reasons,” said event organizer Steve Miller, a hops specialist at the Cornell University Cooperative Extension. “At one point in the 1880s, New York state produced 90 percent of the hops in the country and that was over 21 million pounds of dry hops a year; that was a lot for that time for the population of the United States at that time.”
Nearly 200 attended the conference for current and prospective growers of hops which focused on re-establishing commercial specialty hops both in New York and the Northeast.
“This has gone great,” Miller said of the professional-level conference. “We’ve got people who are growing as many as 10 acres now and we’ve got a whole bunch of people here who are planning on growing next year. There’s a good mixture of people here, it’s exciting.”
Topics included the planting, growing and harvesting hops as well as financial and scientific resources to support growers and local craft brewers, including Brown’s, which grows some of its own hops.
“I’d say half of the people here are growing some hops,” Miller said. “The other half in some cases they’re farmers — we’ve got some people who have vineyards, some are vegetable growers, we’ve also got a lot of people who are home growers who are interesting in furthering their career and their business. There’s a pretty wide mixture of people at this conference that are interested in growing hops.”
The Northeast Hop Alliance’s overall mission “is to enhance the cultural heritage of hop production through education, agri-tourism and agricultural preservation.”
Speakers at the day-long event at Brown’s Brewing Company’s Revolution Hall included hop researchers from the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Cornell University’s Cooperative Extension, the University of Vermont Extension and from as far way as Oregon State University.
“There’s a lot of stuff that we and other brewers are getting out of this in terms of the technical and science side of hop growing,” said Gregg Stacy, vice president and director of marketing and sales for Brown’s Brewing Co. “But from a business standpoint what we’re really interested in is what kind of resources we need for harvesting, for packaging and preserving the product which will help us year round.”
The brewers on hand included several from the Northeast, including from Vermont and Massachusetts.
“It’s great how we’re focusing on growing the hops industry right here in the Northeast,” Stacy said. “This is great because of the camaraderie between the brewers who came here from across the region and an event like this is great not only from being able to see other people in the industry, but we can also learn from each other, share stories and take pride in what we’re doing.”
Locally, Brown’s Brewing Co. brews about 4,000 barrels of its own craft-made beer per year on site and receives most of its hops from Groveside Naturals Farm in Pittstown as well as from a three-acre spread of hops fields on the Brown’s 110-acre family farm in West Hoosick, both in Rensselaer County.
The Browns have plans to open a new product brewery in a former factory building along the Walloomsac River in North Hoosick, from which they plan to initially brew about 20,000 barrels a year.
“The enthusiasm has grown in the craft beer industry,” Kelly Brown said. “While the beer industry is struggling a bit right now as a whole, craft beer sales are up by 15 percent overall in the industry and I think that number is going to go up higher and higher. I think it’s important to a lot of farmers that brewers use local hops, people are proud of that. And I think they should be because there are so many things that we’re getting from all over the country and all over the world, to have something from your own land is a wonderful thing.”
Historically, western New York state was the largest hop producing region in the world until the early 1900s when a mold and aphid blight destroyed the crop and hop growing in the United States moved to the Pacific Northwest.
The Northeast Hop Alliance is “dedicated to the rebirth of this profitable agricultural segment that thrived in this area for nearly 150 years,” as New York currently only has about 30 acres of hop crops.
Saturday’s program included the Northeast Hop Alliance’s annual meeting and was concluded with a grower/brewer/researcher panel. Earlier in the day, the agenda included presentations and discussions on the topics of soils and fertility for Eastern grown hops; trellises and getting started; factors in growing quality hops; managing diseases and pests in the hopyard; small scale hops processing; managing weeds in the hopyard; grazing sheep in the hopyard; and new hop harvesters for Eastern growers.
“There are also a ton of smaller breweries in the area that need hops as well, so the potential here is exciting,” Stacy said. “ … I think it’s important for us and other breweries in the industry in the region to get as many of our brewing ingredients from New York state.”
For more information about the growth of hop production both in New York state and the Northeast, visit www.nehopalliance.org or call 315-684-3001.
Chris Fitz Gerald can be reached at 270-1252 or by email at cfitzgerald@troyrecord.com.
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