Growers needed for WV hops

West Virginia’s hop growers are moving ahead, though slowly and cautiously. While commercial hop growing has taken off in Ohio and Virginia, West Virginia has been slower to see significant investments for establishing hopyards. Right now, the demand for local WV hops is way ahead of the supply. 

One of the hurdles to increasing hop production is the current cost of starting a hopyard. It requires a first year investment of $10,000 plus per acre, not counting the cost of land. This figure includes soil preparation, irrigation system, trellis system, and hop plants. It does not include any harvesting, processing or drying equipment or buildings.

Currently in West Virginia, due to the lack harvesting, drying, and processing equipment, the use of local hops is mostly limited to a few brews made with wet, fresh harvested hops.

WV hops find their way into beers

Over the years, a few hops that have been planted mostly for decoration at West Virginia breweries have found their way into small-batch commercial beers sold at those breweries. The NET Brewery and Screech Owl Brewing are two that come to mind who flavor a beer with hops they grow on-site.

There are also breweries that have sourced fresh hops from local growers. For the past several Septembers, Big Timber Brewing has released a West Virginia Wet Hop Ale, which used Cascade hops grown by Spring Water Farms near Fairview in Marion County. This is the most well-distributed WV-hopped beer in the state. Then, coming out last fall was Big Timber’s excellent Hop Harvest Autumn IPA, which also used Cascade and Chinook hops from Spring Water Farm. It was the best WV-hopped beer we’ve tasted to date.

Last September, Weathered Ground Brewery released Lost Ridge Wet-Hopped Pale Ale, made solely with fresh hops sourced from J.R. Ward’s Lost Ridge Farms in Fairdale, Raleigh County. The beer was bittered with Zeus and late-hopped with Cascade. Ward also dries some whole cone Cascade hops, and from those, Weathered Ground made another winner that they released in early February: Foggy on the Ridge East Coast IPA.

Berkeley Springs Brewing produced a fresh hop IPA and a pale ale with fresh hops from Organarchy Hops in nearby Maryland. For several years, the now closed Lost River Brewing Company made a fresh hopped autumn beer with locally sourced hops from the nearby Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Bridge Brew Works has made a fresh-hop beer with whole cone hops grown by Andrew Stout of Oak Hill. Last fall, Mountain State Brewing in Thomas used freshly harvested Cascade and Willamette hops they grew locally and produced Homegrown Wet Hop IPA.

Sampling of West Virginia’s larger hopyards 

Situated a couple of miles outside Charles Town in Jefferson County, Bullskin Hops is the state’s largest hopyard with over an acre under cultivation. It is located on a 1,000 acre family farm which has been continuously cultivated since the 1750s. About a decade ago, farm proprietor John Burns began growing hops trying eight different varieties. In 2012, he planted nearly 1,000 Cascade rhizomes sourced from Oregon, and within a few years, expanded again adding a commercial hop trellis system.

Burns has a hop harvester to pick his hop cones. He then dries and conditions them. Lastly, 100 percent of his hops are pelletized using his pelletizer equipment. He sells his hops to Ocelot Brewing in nearby Loudoun County, Virginia, and to local Abolitionist Ale Works in Charles Town.

On Andrew Stout’s 10 acre farm near Oak Hill in Fayette County he raises hops  along with fruit trees, berries, and assorted vegetables. He has experimented with growing Cascade, Willamette, Columbus, Zeus, Chinook, and Perle varieties.

Marion County hop growers James Lewis and Jason Ely raise hops at Spring Water Farms near Fairview in Marion County. They primarily grow Cascade and Chinook hops and market their crop to Big Timber Brewing. They have also experimented with Fuggles, Centennial, and other varieties.

J.R. Ward is a coal miner who also operates Lost Ridge Farms in Raleigh County. He currently has a one-quarter acre hopyard and grows Cascade, Zeus, Centennial, and Chinook hops. He plans to expand his yard as finances allow. He is one of the more efficient hop growers in the region with his own mechanical hop harvester and drying structure and equipment. He sells most of his hops to Red Hill Brewing Company in Concord, North Carolina, and locally to Weathered Ground Brewery.

A few years back, growers Andrew Stout, James Lewis of Spring Water Farms, and John Burns of Bullskin Hops Farm participated in hop trials conducted by West Virginia State University. These trials produced a base line for hop yields and cultivation practices for several popular varieties. Now, the WVSU program is purchasing hop milling and pelletizing equipment that growers can share to produce hops in the pellet form that is preferred by commercial brewers.

Hop growing session at WV Small Farm Conference 

Last month, a well-attended hop growing seminar was held as part of the annual West Virginia Small Farm Conference in Morgantown. The afternoon-long session included presentations by hop grower Jonathan “J.R.” Ward of Lost Ridge Farms in Raleigh County, brewer Roger Johnson of Screech Owl Brewing in Preston County, Brad Cochran of West Virginia State University’s agriculture program, and Brad Bergefurd, manager of the Ohio State University agriculture experiment farm in Piketon.

Ward spoke on his experience establishing a commercial hopyard in southern West Virginia and of how he harvests, dries, and processes his hops. Johnson spoke on the hop needs of typical commercial brewries in the state. Bergefurd spoke on his experience growing hops for the past five years and about the positive and negative experiences of hop growers in Ohio. Cochran discussed the lessons learned from his university’s hop trials and about their plans for the future.

Ward talked a lot about how his hop harvester equipment and his hop drying system remove two major bottlenecks for the hop business. Picking the cones by hand, as some small hop growers do, is so incredibly labor intensive and time-consuming that it becomes a size limiter. When mature, hop cones must be picked during a very short window or they’re worthless. A harvesting machine can pick the cones quickly and efficiently, allowing the hopyard to increase its acreage greatly.

Even with all the small breweries around, a hop grower can sell only so much fresh, wet hops, which are only at their peak for 24 hours. Hop drying equipment allows a grower to preserve the rest of the hop crop in a form brewers can use throughout the year.

Roger Johnson explained the primary hop varieties and quantities that he and other WV brewers use. He said all of them are set up to use hops in the pelletized form. It is difficult for them to use whole cone hops other than for a special beer or two.

In West Virginia hops are typically harvested in August, with each hop variety maturing at slightly different rates. The state has a variety of micro climates that will also affect maturity dates.

The presenters agreed that a good hop grower will already have most of his crop sold prior to harvest. Good communication is essential when producing a wet-hopped beer, since the brewery must have the beer ready for hopping within 24 hours of the time the hops were harvested.

A lot of discussion centered around pest and disease problems and hop harvesting and processing difficulties. One thing was made very clear, commercial hop growing is not for those looking for an easy sideline. Though it can be a profitable endeavor, it is expensive to establish and requires regular intensive work throughout the growing and harvesting seasons.

It is clear from the experience of hop growers in Virginia, Ohio, and North Carolina that there is a strong demand from local breweries for local hops. Right now, there is more demand for local hops than the growers can supply. Hopefully, if workshops like the one at the Small Farm Conference are an indicator, more people will soon be growing hops commercially in West Virginia.