In 1808 a Massachusetts farmer named James Coolidge bought
land in Madison County and planted the first recorded commercial
hop yard in New York State. Hops had been introduced to
the Colonies in 1629 but most pubs and commercial brewers continued
to use ones imported from England.
At first, Coolidge and his crop attracted little attention. Then he
brought a batch to New York City and sold them for the impressive
sum of $1,000 a ton—and people took notice.
22 spring 2008 ediblefingerlakes.com
Within a few years, hops became one of the most widely planted
crops in the state and by the mid-1850s New York was growing 90
percent of the nation’s supply. By the latter half of the 1800s, production
increased to 3 million pounds a year, selling across the country
and even exporting to Europe. Most of that output came from Central
New York.
Hops are fast-growing perennials, most closely related to hemp and
marijuana. Rhizomes send up sprouts in spring, and quickly become
bines (similar to vines) that must be trained to supporting cords. The
bines grow up to 30 feet, sometimes at the rate of a foot a day. As
HEIRLOOMS OF THE FINGER LAKES
By Kate Staples
The History of Hops in New York
Will there be a hoppy ending?
Hop Pickers, 1900
From the Collection at the Senimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY
ediblefingerlakes.com Spring 2008 23
they grow, they produce cones covered in green papery scales, which
turn yellow when ripe. The cones hold the glands and oils and are
used in the beer making process.
Hops require little maintenance during the growing season—but
come harvest time, the real work begins. The bines have to be cut
down and the cones removed within a two- to three-week window
of time so they don’t rot or mold. Because of this labor-intensive
process, more hands are needed at harvest time.
In the 1800s farmers solved this dilemma by turning harvesting into a
grand-scale social event. Thousands of men, women and children traveled
to the hop yards and the farm families
provided room and board.Women and children
were assigned to pick the cones while
men carted them to hop houses for drying
and storing. It was a highly anticipated occasion
and though workers were paid for
their labor, many considered it a vacation.
Evenings included storytelling, dinner and
dancing at the “hop.”
Hops remained a valuable crop throughout
New York State until 1909 when the area
was hit hard by blue mold and hops aphids.
At the same time, farmers on theWest Coast
began mechanized picking, making harvesting
more efficient. Prices began to fluctuate,
reaching a high of over $1.25 a pound one
year then plummeting the next, causing
many farmers to cut back on production. A
decade later, Prohibition finished off most of
the remaining farms.
In 2000, William Pardee, now a retired professor
fromthe Plant BreedingDepartment at
Cornell University, began searching for a direct
link to the history of hops in New York.
“Hops had been such a big part ofNew York’s
economy and landscape in the 1800s, before
the blight that killedmuch of it.We wanted to find out if the plants were
susceptible to the same problems today.”
Pardee found a bag of rhizome parts marked “New York Hops” at a
germplasm bank in England. At the time, hops production in New
York was limited to hobbyists and wild growing varieties, so Pardee
was excited by the discovery. “We didn’t know what variety it was or
where it came from but it was clearly a piece of history.”
He had the hops sent from England to Cornell and grew them in
quarantine for several years.When he was satisfied that the rhizomes
were free of disease, he gave a few to Rick Pedersen, a farmer in Ontario
county, who was already growing some.
Using a Grow NY grant from New York Agriculture and Markets,
Pedersen began expanding his crop. He had some interest from breweries,
but it wasn’t until Dan Mitchell, founder and owner of Ithaca
Beer, came along that he got serious.
“Dan had so much enthusiasm and energy. He was really into local
product and encouraged me to expand my yard, so I added acres
and pushed my yield to supply him.”
In 2004, Ithaca Beer released the first commercial beer made exclusively
from New York hops. “It was a Double IPA,” says Mitchell,
meaning an India pale ale, named for a style of beer brewed for
British troops stationed in India during the
18th century. Those beers were brewed
with higher hop and alcohol content to
help them survive the long sea voyage.
“The beer was very successful, but we
could only do a limited run because we
only had a small amount of hops,” says
Mitchell.
Pedersen is still selling his hops to commercial
brewers, who seem to favor both the
variety given to him by Pardee and another
type he calls Pedersen Hops, which he
propagated from a plant growing wild on
his property. He can’t keep up with demand
and, as much as he’d like to expand,
he can’t compete with large farms.
“I guess you could call it a labor of love,
since I’ve yet to make any money off of
hops,” Pedersen says.
Today, most hops are crushed into a powder
and sold in pelletized form. Many
brewers prefer this because the hops are
easier to ship and can be stored longer.
Some, however, say the tradeoff is in the
taste. For a small farmer, a pelletizing machine,
costing around $30,000, is an expense
they can’t afford.
In 2000, Larry Fisher, a farmer in Madison County who also planted
some of the rhizomes from Pardee, helped form a group called the
Northeastern Hop Alliance (NEHA) to help farmers get into hop
production. The NEHA looked into the possibility of purchasing a
shared harvester and a pelletizer.
The research so far has been discouraging. “You can’t even find equipment
designed for small farms,” says Fisher. “Plus, harvest season is
the same for everyone, so everyone would be wanting to use the machine
at the same time.” The only hop farmer in the state with any
sort of specialized machinery appears to be Pedersen, whose antique
harvester, he says, “is broken as often as it works.”
dreamstime.com
24 spring 2008 ediblefingerlakes.com
Another possibility the NEHA has discussed in hopes of making hops
a viable commodity is approaching farmers who already make their
living from other crops. For instance, Duncan Hilchey, a professor at
Cornell University, who links hop growers to brewers, suggests that
hops would be a good crop for established vineyards.
“They’re used to working with perennial plants and making capital
investments on the infrastructure. Plus, there’s a two- to three-year lag
time between planting hops and seeing your first crop; vineyards understand
that. They also have the marketing skills.”
Today, the brewing world is in the midst of a severe hop shortage.
“It was basically the perfect hop storm,” explains Peter Martin, brewmaster
of Brown’s Brewing in Troy, NY. “There had been a glut of
hops, so many farmers cut back or stopped growing. Then last year
there were natural disasters in nearly every area that grows hops.
There were storms in Europe, the Slavic countries and Australia; a
hops storehouse inWashington burned down. Nearly one third to
one half of the hops crop was lost.”
Breweries accustomed to keeping hops on reserve had been casual
about maintaining their inventories because of the glut. The result is
that prices have skyrocketed.
“Ultimately, the crazy market is going to calm down, probably by
2009, when the hops being planted now mature, so I’m not getting
too optimistic with my planting,” says Pedersen. “The problem is that
New York has no infrastructure supporting the industry. Those other
places growing hops—Yakima Valley, the Czech Republic—they have
millions of dollars behind them.”
“I can’t see someone establishing a huge farm here, I think it will always
be a niche market,” says Hilchey. “We’ll attract brewers who are
more concerned with uniqueness of taste. Brewpubs are very experimental.
They’re always looking for new flavors to please their customers—
a perfect match for small farmers. Everything is coming
together except the technology and the capital investment. Helping to
get these farmers going and creating that market would be a worthy
public investment for the state.”
DotWillsey is another founding member of NEHA. “Back when we
started the Alliance, there were a lot of growers who were very excited,
but there wasn’t much interest on the part of brewers,” she says. “Now
it’s the brewers who are interested but there aren’t enough growers. At
some point everyone is going to be ready at the same time.”
Kate Staples is a freelance writer. She and her family divide their time between
the Hudson Valley and New York City.
Photo by Rick Pedersen
land in Madison County and planted the first recorded commercial
hop yard in New York State. Hops had been introduced to
the Colonies in 1629 but most pubs and commercial brewers continued
to use ones imported from England.
At first, Coolidge and his crop attracted little attention. Then he
brought a batch to New York City and sold them for the impressive
sum of $1,000 a ton—and people took notice.
22 spring 2008 ediblefingerlakes.com
Within a few years, hops became one of the most widely planted
crops in the state and by the mid-1850s New York was growing 90
percent of the nation’s supply. By the latter half of the 1800s, production
increased to 3 million pounds a year, selling across the country
and even exporting to Europe. Most of that output came from Central
New York.
Hops are fast-growing perennials, most closely related to hemp and
marijuana. Rhizomes send up sprouts in spring, and quickly become
bines (similar to vines) that must be trained to supporting cords. The
bines grow up to 30 feet, sometimes at the rate of a foot a day. As
HEIRLOOMS OF THE FINGER LAKES
By Kate Staples
The History of Hops in New York
Will there be a hoppy ending?
Hop Pickers, 1900
From the Collection at the Senimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY
ediblefingerlakes.com Spring 2008 23
they grow, they produce cones covered in green papery scales, which
turn yellow when ripe. The cones hold the glands and oils and are
used in the beer making process.
Hops require little maintenance during the growing season—but
come harvest time, the real work begins. The bines have to be cut
down and the cones removed within a two- to three-week window
of time so they don’t rot or mold. Because of this labor-intensive
process, more hands are needed at harvest time.
In the 1800s farmers solved this dilemma by turning harvesting into a
grand-scale social event. Thousands of men, women and children traveled
to the hop yards and the farm families
provided room and board.Women and children
were assigned to pick the cones while
men carted them to hop houses for drying
and storing. It was a highly anticipated occasion
and though workers were paid for
their labor, many considered it a vacation.
Evenings included storytelling, dinner and
dancing at the “hop.”
Hops remained a valuable crop throughout
New York State until 1909 when the area
was hit hard by blue mold and hops aphids.
At the same time, farmers on theWest Coast
began mechanized picking, making harvesting
more efficient. Prices began to fluctuate,
reaching a high of over $1.25 a pound one
year then plummeting the next, causing
many farmers to cut back on production. A
decade later, Prohibition finished off most of
the remaining farms.
In 2000, William Pardee, now a retired professor
fromthe Plant BreedingDepartment at
Cornell University, began searching for a direct
link to the history of hops in New York.
“Hops had been such a big part ofNew York’s
economy and landscape in the 1800s, before
the blight that killedmuch of it.We wanted to find out if the plants were
susceptible to the same problems today.”
Pardee found a bag of rhizome parts marked “New York Hops” at a
germplasm bank in England. At the time, hops production in New
York was limited to hobbyists and wild growing varieties, so Pardee
was excited by the discovery. “We didn’t know what variety it was or
where it came from but it was clearly a piece of history.”
He had the hops sent from England to Cornell and grew them in
quarantine for several years.When he was satisfied that the rhizomes
were free of disease, he gave a few to Rick Pedersen, a farmer in Ontario
county, who was already growing some.
Using a Grow NY grant from New York Agriculture and Markets,
Pedersen began expanding his crop. He had some interest from breweries,
but it wasn’t until Dan Mitchell, founder and owner of Ithaca
Beer, came along that he got serious.
“Dan had so much enthusiasm and energy. He was really into local
product and encouraged me to expand my yard, so I added acres
and pushed my yield to supply him.”
In 2004, Ithaca Beer released the first commercial beer made exclusively
from New York hops. “It was a Double IPA,” says Mitchell,
meaning an India pale ale, named for a style of beer brewed for
British troops stationed in India during the
18th century. Those beers were brewed
with higher hop and alcohol content to
help them survive the long sea voyage.
“The beer was very successful, but we
could only do a limited run because we
only had a small amount of hops,” says
Mitchell.
Pedersen is still selling his hops to commercial
brewers, who seem to favor both the
variety given to him by Pardee and another
type he calls Pedersen Hops, which he
propagated from a plant growing wild on
his property. He can’t keep up with demand
and, as much as he’d like to expand,
he can’t compete with large farms.
“I guess you could call it a labor of love,
since I’ve yet to make any money off of
hops,” Pedersen says.
Today, most hops are crushed into a powder
and sold in pelletized form. Many
brewers prefer this because the hops are
easier to ship and can be stored longer.
Some, however, say the tradeoff is in the
taste. For a small farmer, a pelletizing machine,
costing around $30,000, is an expense
they can’t afford.
In 2000, Larry Fisher, a farmer in Madison County who also planted
some of the rhizomes from Pardee, helped form a group called the
Northeastern Hop Alliance (NEHA) to help farmers get into hop
production. The NEHA looked into the possibility of purchasing a
shared harvester and a pelletizer.
The research so far has been discouraging. “You can’t even find equipment
designed for small farms,” says Fisher. “Plus, harvest season is
the same for everyone, so everyone would be wanting to use the machine
at the same time.” The only hop farmer in the state with any
sort of specialized machinery appears to be Pedersen, whose antique
harvester, he says, “is broken as often as it works.”
dreamstime.com
24 spring 2008 ediblefingerlakes.com
Another possibility the NEHA has discussed in hopes of making hops
a viable commodity is approaching farmers who already make their
living from other crops. For instance, Duncan Hilchey, a professor at
Cornell University, who links hop growers to brewers, suggests that
hops would be a good crop for established vineyards.
“They’re used to working with perennial plants and making capital
investments on the infrastructure. Plus, there’s a two- to three-year lag
time between planting hops and seeing your first crop; vineyards understand
that. They also have the marketing skills.”
Today, the brewing world is in the midst of a severe hop shortage.
“It was basically the perfect hop storm,” explains Peter Martin, brewmaster
of Brown’s Brewing in Troy, NY. “There had been a glut of
hops, so many farmers cut back or stopped growing. Then last year
there were natural disasters in nearly every area that grows hops.
There were storms in Europe, the Slavic countries and Australia; a
hops storehouse inWashington burned down. Nearly one third to
one half of the hops crop was lost.”
Breweries accustomed to keeping hops on reserve had been casual
about maintaining their inventories because of the glut. The result is
that prices have skyrocketed.
“Ultimately, the crazy market is going to calm down, probably by
2009, when the hops being planted now mature, so I’m not getting
too optimistic with my planting,” says Pedersen. “The problem is that
New York has no infrastructure supporting the industry. Those other
places growing hops—Yakima Valley, the Czech Republic—they have
millions of dollars behind them.”
“I can’t see someone establishing a huge farm here, I think it will always
be a niche market,” says Hilchey. “We’ll attract brewers who are
more concerned with uniqueness of taste. Brewpubs are very experimental.
They’re always looking for new flavors to please their customers—
a perfect match for small farmers. Everything is coming
together except the technology and the capital investment. Helping to
get these farmers going and creating that market would be a worthy
public investment for the state.”
DotWillsey is another founding member of NEHA. “Back when we
started the Alliance, there were a lot of growers who were very excited,
but there wasn’t much interest on the part of brewers,” she says. “Now
it’s the brewers who are interested but there aren’t enough growers. At
some point everyone is going to be ready at the same time.”
Kate Staples is a freelance writer. She and her family divide their time between
the Hudson Valley and New York City.
Photo by Rick Pedersen
