Vera hop excitement hits West Virginia

West Virginia Beer Roads podcast visited Weathered Ground Brewery recently for a tasting and discussion of the new Vera hop. It’s a hop that’s exciting and a beauty.

Interviewed are Alexa Long, who is the East Coast sales rep for Hollingbery & Son Hops out of Yakima, Washington, and Sam Fonda from Weathered Ground. On the podcast, we cover a lot of territory about the Vera hop and brewing with it and drinking it in a beer.

Fonda has now tested Vera in his Vera Good IPA and is soon making a large batch of the beer, which should be available to West Virginia retailers, bars, and restaurants in the next month or so.

As the East Coast representative for Hollingbery, Alexa is the only hop supplier we know of who actually lives here in West Virginia. She resides in Fayetteville, and she’s a great resource for our brewing community. In addition to Weathered Ground, she currently supplies hops to Stumptown Ales and High Ground Brewing. [Check out Alexa’s contact info below]

Vera’s a big deal

The new Vera hop is a big deal. It was developed through a US Department of Agriculture program, making it a public hop variety available to all growers. It has remarkable sensory characteristics. Unlike the very popular proprietary hops of today, which are controlled by the patent owners, Vera can be grown and produced in any quantity a grower wants.

Like the popular proprietary hop varieties, when used as a dry hop, Vera produces the juicy-fruity tastes and aroma qualities that consumers love in IPAs and pale ales. It’s a mix of tropical and stone fruits. When added to in the boil, Vera can also bring a modern flavors to pale lager styles. It will be exciting to see what all West Virginia’s (and America’s) craft brewers can do with this hop.

Being a public hop should keep Vera prices competitive and less costly than many other hops with similar aroma and flavor characteristics. This is a big deal to small brewers who have seen proprietary hop prices creep up in recent years.

Listen to the Vera podcast here

Hear Sam Fonda and Alexa Long discuss Vera and its appeal to brewers and craft beer lovers on this episode of West Virginia Beer Roads.

This new hop is getting so much attention national, already. In fact, the Brewers Association created a special category at this year’s Great American Beer Festival for Vera-hopped beers. Read about it here.

Also check out Brilliant Stream’s original article on the Vera hop here.

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For more information on obtaining Vera, Email Alexa Long at alexa@hollingberyandson.com
Hollingbery supplies a large variety of hops to brewers across America.