Organic Hop Variety Trial Final Report

Hops production has increased steadily throughout the Northeast over the past 6 years. While hops were historically grown in the Northeast, they have not been commercially produced in this region for over a hundred years. With this large gap in regional production knowledge, we have a great need for region-specific, science-based research on this reemerging crop. The vast majority of hop production in the United States occurs in the arid Pacific Northwest on a very large scale. In the Northeast, the average hop yard is well under 10 acres and the humid climate provides challenges not addressed by existing hops research. Knowledge is needed on how best to produce hops on a small-scale in our region. With this in mind, in August of 2010, the UVM Extension Northwest Crops and Soils Program initiated an organic hops variety evaluation program at Borderview Research Farm in Alburgh, Vermont. Since then, UVM Extension has been evaluating 22 publicly available hop varieties and 2 experimental varieties. The goal of these efforts is to find hop varieties that demonstrate disease and pest resistance, high yields, and desirable characteristics to brewers in our region. The UVM hop variety trial was initiated in 2010 and completed with a final harvest in 2016. This seven year trial helped us learn whether we could grow hops in the Northeast. The results and observations from each of the years the variety trial was conducted can be found online on the UVM Extension Northwest Crops and Soils Hops web page: www.uvm.edu/ extension/cropsoil/hops. This document provides a summary of the knowledge gained in growing hops over the duration of this study