Hop To It: A Field Trial of Organic Hops
From the colonial period until 1908, the area around Jeffrey Klein’s farm in Westerlo, New York was an important region for hops production. Then came the downy mildew that effectively ended production in the Northeast, and the labor unrest that affected so many industries, including agriculture. But the crop’s potential for non-peak-season income, along with the history of local success, encouraged Klein to conduct a hops field trial on his organic farm.
The goal of this project was to see if hops could provide fall and winter income the way Christmas tree farming and storage vegetables do, but without the intense competition and narrow profit margins of those enterprises. Right now, the demand for organic hops is high, and most of the product comes from New Zealand. "When the project started," says Klein, "organic hops were always imported, and sold for as much as $14 an ounce. That has dropped to about $9 an ounce, in part, I think, because the growers in New Zealand took note of this project and made an adjustment. But the premium for organic hops still makes a difference. Conventionally-grown hops can go for $2 an ounce or sometimes less." These conventionally-grown hops are mostly produced in the Pacific Northwest; as far as Klein can tell, he is the only organic producer in the U.S.
"The interest in organic has been tremendous," says Klein, who sold his first year’s harvest quickly to home brewers and to a producer of homeopathic medicine. These sales developed chiefly through word of mouth, and inquiries continued after the product was gone. Demand is strong. But Klein goes on to point out that hops are labor intensive: "The plants require wrapping, training, and pruning -- probably an hour per plant during the season and another hour at harvest." He grows 130 vines on a quarter acre, and each vine produces four to six ounces of dried hops. His early calculations seem to show that the return on organic hops is about what he gets for his organic vegetables, and is thus profitable, but growers who contemplate hops should realize the amount of hand training and pruning involved.
Klein began by planting ten rhizomes each of fifteen different varieties, concentrating on disease-resistant, high-yield plants that would be suitable for organic production. In general, the aromatic hops have larger cones and yield more, while hops that give beer its distinctive taste are smaller and yield less. He noted very substantial differences in vigor, drought tolerance, and winter hardiness among the varieties he planted, and had particular success with ‘Brewers Gold,’ ‘Kent Golding,’ and ‘Bullion.’
Hops are harvested after the vegetable growing season is over, and it is the dried, ripe flower that contains the aromatic oil. These flowers look like diminutive pine cones, and are dried and used in brewing to prevent bacterial action and to add the characteristic bitter taste to beer. Hop vines are perennial, which is a distinct advantage for producers, and because they are trellised they can be grown in tandem with potted nursery crops. The dried hops can be frozen and stored, further enhancing off-season income.
Another aspect of this project was exploring whether hops can be grown on smaller trellises --traditionally, hops are grown on tall poles and overhead wires up to 20 feet off the ground. Utility poles or treated pole barn timbers are commonly pressed into service, but these are not acceptable in organic production. Klein experimented with 12-foot trellises of fresh-cut white oak with a 12-gauge high-tensile wire at the top anchored with turnbuckles. These proved perfectly adequate and, because cones at the end of the vines mature sooner than those near the base of the vine, Klein is interested in experimenting with trellis heights to see if they can regulate crop maturity.
Klein’s take on the project is positive -- he thinks small-scale producers can profitably raise, harvest, and market locally-grown hops, particularly "craft" hops that develop a reputation for a certain variety, quality, or flavor particular to that farm. But "Nothing’s easy," Klein said in a recent telephone interview, and he hopes that growers who are considering organic hops will take the labor involved into consideration. Still, the reintroduction of hops in the Northeast does offer farmers an opportunity to diversify using a plant that once prospered here, and to recapture an organic market that has been filled mostly by products from overseas.
To learn more about Klein’s organic hops production trials, call Northeast SARE at 802/656-0471 and request materials on FNE98-195.
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