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August 22, 2016

Hops making a comeback in Connecticut

By Nicholas Leahey | Journal Inquirer

Hidden in plain sight on a farm just off Interstate 91 in Windsor sits one of two Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Stations, where a combination of biologists, entomologists, pathologists, and other scientists are helping to grow the future of the beer brewing industry in Connecticut.

The key to that future is the production of viable varieties of hops plants, a key ingredient that brewers use for flavoring beer. The state-funded facility is researching different varieties of hops to determine how farmers can combat various environmental factors that can hinder their growth in Connecticut, including disease and insects.

“We’re producing (hops) to provide information to growers so that they can grow the crop,” says James LaMondia, a chief scientist and pathologist who is working on the project. “We want to yield local hops with higher quality.”

LaMondia and agricultural research scientist Katja Maurer started off their research with five varieties of hops plants when they first started in 2013, and have now grown more than 60 varieties. LaMondia, however, estimates that only about 20 percent of the hops they have yielded are resistant to a combination of environmental threats, including mildew and fungi, insects, and more. Even then, he says, he is unsure.

“Resistance does not mean they’re immune,” LaMondia says.

Research on hop growing by the agricultural station has provided valuable information for local hops farmers across Connecticut as the industry continues to grow.

Researchers have made an attempt to share their findings during meetings with members of the newly formed Connecticut Hops Growers Association to discuss some of the findings from LaMondia and Maurer’s research. The Department of Agriculture says a June workshop on hops growing attracted approximately 70 farmers.

“People are going to use this information to figure out which varieties they can grow,” LaMondia says about his research. “They’ve been using it to determine that they can grow crops here. There is a hops industry starting.”

Local brewers have taken notice of the growing trend, and believe there is a demand for hops in Connecticut, especially as the market continues to grow.

“We would love to be able to use more local hops from Connecticut,” says Tony Karlowicz, a co-founder and brewer at Back East Brewery in Bloomfield. He adds that not only would local hops growers benefit from clients who are close by, but a local source of hops would prove to be much more cost effective for brewers. “It costs a lot to ship them,” he says.

Some breweries say local hops growers have reached out to them. However, the same breweries have said they cannot buy hops from many local growers because they cannot supply “dry” hops, or hops that are dried in an oast house or hop kiln before they enter the brewing process. “Wet” hops, which aren’t dried, require that more hops be used during the brewing process, requiring more to be bought.

“Lots of Connecticut growers have wet hops,” says Aaren Simoncini, owner and head brewer of Beer’d Brewery in Stonington. “It’s the same price, with more pounds per beer.”

Regardless, some local growers who can supply dry hops, are having success.

Doug Weber of Pioneer Hops in Morris supplies various local breweries throughout the state, including Back East Brewery. As one of only two known commercial hops growers in the state, he hopes to market approximately 2,500 pounds of dry hops to local Connecticut breweries.

“Connecticut is home to some of the finest breweries in the country,” says Weber. He believes that if Connecticut continues to move in the direction it is now, it could grow a viable hops industry and, in turn, a stronger brewing industry.

While most hops producers in the United States reside in the Pacific Northwest, the current trend in Connecticut has been reflected all over the Northeast. New York have brought back the cone-shaped crop in the past few years, after what some believe has been more than a century since it was grown commercially in this area of the country.

Simoncini believes that the industry’s success will give way to more “exclusivity” via specialty hops breeding, similar to that of other crops.

“The future will definitely be interesting,” he says.

For now, though, LaMondia and Maurer will continue their research.

“There are not many hops farms in the state,” says Maurer. “But maybe in the future.”

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