Many of us drink the beverage which contains, and is flavored by hops. As baby boomers, like myself, get older, and we are a rather large age cohort within the nation, we are drinking less beer, but more craft beer. Or, what I call designer beer. We are drinking less beer, but a better beer, perhaps one with a higher alcohol content, making it perhaps a good thing that we drink fewer beers. We are also drinking more wine which may make us feel like adults when we really want to feel younger. It wasn't too long ago that the main beer at parties was Miller Lite, but it is now New Glarus Brewery's Spotted Cow, or some other designer brand. Walking to Camp Randall a couple times this fall it became apparent that college students drink the cheap Busch beer. Although, as one 21 year old UW Economics major told me, if they really splurge it is Miller Lite, which happens to be his favorite beer. The innocence of youth. As craft breweries in the state pursue market share, they desire to brand themselves as using locally grown ingredients.
A recent news article pointed out the difficulties craft breweries are having in obtaining locally grown hops. Hops is an essential part of the brewing process and is used to offset the sweetness of the malt, but to also provide unique characteristics for a particular beer. Usually a different hop is used for the flavoring than that used to counteract the malt. It is probably the hops which makes my spouse not like beer. There are many type of hops and those grown in the United States tend to be higher in alpha-acids, which provide the main bitterness, and also more aromatic than those grown in Europe. Five Wisconsin craft breweries, including Central Waters of Amherst, WI and of family picnic fame, teamed up four years ago to provide seed money to hop growers. The results are lukewarm at best only adding eight acres of hops, although the total acres devoted to hops in the beer loving state of Wisconsin is now 50! So as a percentage of land devoted to hops it was successful. Seed money was provided because growing hops is labor and capital intensive (think of that when you see the price of a six pack). Instead of simply putting seeds in a trench, growing hops requires the purchase of root-stock, and the installation of a set of poles and cables; hops grow over 20' and use these installations for support. Harvesting equipment is, apparently, also expensive. Plants that may grow more than a foot a day also need proper nourishment, thus proper fertilizer and water are important. Hops also spoil quickly so they are often dried and sold in pellet form.
Over 77% of the hops in the nation are grown in Washington state. A hops grower in Amherst, WI grew 3,000 lbs/acre in 2013, but hopes to get up to 5,000 lbs per acre. Some growers in Washington can obtain yields of twice his hoped for amount. Wisconsin movement to hops at present time is rather deliberate and from a historical standpoint, this caution and care is well advised. For one brief shining moment Wisconsin was the hops capital of the nation. In 1867 the state produced 75% of the nation's hops. Agoston Haraszthy, a count from Hungary, perhaps best known for starting what is now Wollersheim Winery, is thought to have grown the first hops in the state, in Sauk County. In a first-hand account published in the Baraboo News in 1911, John Rooney noted his first hearing of hops as a teenager in 1857. In 1865, after returning home from service in the Civil War, he would become involved in the hops growing trade. His first job was as a pole-puller and he was paid $2.50 a day, which he liked as he said the going rate for the other pole-pullers was $1.50 a day.
It is not surprising that hops production would increase, as the State was seeing large waves of immigrants from Germany, Czech, and other beer loving central European states. According to a 1921 a Capital Times article, growing of hops "by 1867 had hopped the whole state" from its Sauk County origins. The craze would not long last. In 1868 even though poor weather conditions and the on-set of the "louse" reduced crop yields by 30-40%, there was an overabundance "reducing the value of the yield and the price paid." The hop bubble had burst. John Rooney had reluctantly entered the business joining his step-father in a hops growing venture essentially as share-croppers on the Sauk County farm of O. Phelps. The two men cleared $1,100 on their 1867 sale of hops, for which the crop was sold at 56 cents a pound, but the venture lost $3,000 on their 1868 sale. The 1868 price started at 35 cents a pound for the harvests first in, but quickly decreased to less than 10 cents a pound. $3,000 was obviously a lot of money and he comments that some lost their farms from the investment in hops. Hops became big in Wisconsin as an alternative to wheat which was also experiencing a bubble and the affects of the cinch bug. After 1868 hops would start to lose its luster and other products would garner for Wisconsin agricultural primacy; as we know dairy would start on its way to primacy in the state in the 1880's. Even after the bubble burst, some farmers persevered. By 1879 only one farmer in Dane County, Knut Heimdal of Deerfield, was growing hops; the State Historical Society says that local lore has it that he lost money on every crop, but his first in 1874.
Today, the problem is not just the start-up cost, but the loss of knowledge--how to best grow the crop. Mr. Rooney commented on the importance of his instruction in drying hops. Paul Graham, of Central Waters notes that the success of growing hops is realized most by the experienced farmer wishing to diversify. Hops, currently, are grown as far north as Ashland. The Wisconsin Hops exchange helps match hops growers with brewers.
Perhaps at some point in time, if the UW educated chemical engineer in the family decides to stop working on cleaning concoctions in Texas and take on human nourishment by batching beer back home in Wisconsin, local Wisconsin hops will be available. I do know she will have an ample supply of relatives willing to put their taste buds on the line.
A recent news article pointed out the difficulties craft breweries are having in obtaining locally grown hops. Hops is an essential part of the brewing process and is used to offset the sweetness of the malt, but to also provide unique characteristics for a particular beer. Usually a different hop is used for the flavoring than that used to counteract the malt. It is probably the hops which makes my spouse not like beer. There are many type of hops and those grown in the United States tend to be higher in alpha-acids, which provide the main bitterness, and also more aromatic than those grown in Europe. Five Wisconsin craft breweries, including Central Waters of Amherst, WI and of family picnic fame, teamed up four years ago to provide seed money to hop growers. The results are lukewarm at best only adding eight acres of hops, although the total acres devoted to hops in the beer loving state of Wisconsin is now 50! So as a percentage of land devoted to hops it was successful. Seed money was provided because growing hops is labor and capital intensive (think of that when you see the price of a six pack). Instead of simply putting seeds in a trench, growing hops requires the purchase of root-stock, and the installation of a set of poles and cables; hops grow over 20' and use these installations for support. Harvesting equipment is, apparently, also expensive. Plants that may grow more than a foot a day also need proper nourishment, thus proper fertilizer and water are important. Hops also spoil quickly so they are often dried and sold in pellet form.
 |
| Hops farm (Google images) |
Over 77% of the hops in the nation are grown in Washington state. A hops grower in Amherst, WI grew 3,000 lbs/acre in 2013, but hopes to get up to 5,000 lbs per acre. Some growers in Washington can obtain yields of twice his hoped for amount. Wisconsin movement to hops at present time is rather deliberate and from a historical standpoint, this caution and care is well advised. For one brief shining moment Wisconsin was the hops capital of the nation. In 1867 the state produced 75% of the nation's hops. Agoston Haraszthy, a count from Hungary, perhaps best known for starting what is now Wollersheim Winery, is thought to have grown the first hops in the state, in Sauk County. In a first-hand account published in the Baraboo News in 1911, John Rooney noted his first hearing of hops as a teenager in 1857. In 1865, after returning home from service in the Civil War, he would become involved in the hops growing trade. His first job was as a pole-puller and he was paid $2.50 a day, which he liked as he said the going rate for the other pole-pullers was $1.50 a day.
It is not surprising that hops production would increase, as the State was seeing large waves of immigrants from Germany, Czech, and other beer loving central European states. According to a 1921 a Capital Times article, growing of hops "by 1867 had hopped the whole state" from its Sauk County origins. The craze would not long last. In 1868 even though poor weather conditions and the on-set of the "louse" reduced crop yields by 30-40%, there was an overabundance "reducing the value of the yield and the price paid." The hop bubble had burst. John Rooney had reluctantly entered the business joining his step-father in a hops growing venture essentially as share-croppers on the Sauk County farm of O. Phelps. The two men cleared $1,100 on their 1867 sale of hops, for which the crop was sold at 56 cents a pound, but the venture lost $3,000 on their 1868 sale. The 1868 price started at 35 cents a pound for the harvests first in, but quickly decreased to less than 10 cents a pound. $3,000 was obviously a lot of money and he comments that some lost their farms from the investment in hops. Hops became big in Wisconsin as an alternative to wheat which was also experiencing a bubble and the affects of the cinch bug. After 1868 hops would start to lose its luster and other products would garner for Wisconsin agricultural primacy; as we know dairy would start on its way to primacy in the state in the 1880's. Even after the bubble burst, some farmers persevered. By 1879 only one farmer in Dane County, Knut Heimdal of Deerfield, was growing hops; the State Historical Society says that local lore has it that he lost money on every crop, but his first in 1874.
 |
| Hops Pickers on Heimdal farm in 1879 (WI Historical Society) |
Today, the problem is not just the start-up cost, but the loss of knowledge--how to best grow the crop. Mr. Rooney commented on the importance of his instruction in drying hops. Paul Graham, of Central Waters notes that the success of growing hops is realized most by the experienced farmer wishing to diversify. Hops, currently, are grown as far north as Ashland. The Wisconsin Hops exchange helps match hops growers with brewers.
 |
| Six Pack (Google images) |
Perhaps at some point in time, if the UW educated chemical engineer in the family decides to stop working on cleaning concoctions in Texas and take on human nourishment by batching beer back home in Wisconsin, local Wisconsin hops will be available. I do know she will have an ample supply of relatives willing to put their taste buds on the line.
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