Organic Hop Variety Trial: Results from Year Three

Great interest has been kindled in producing hops in the Northeast. While hops were historically grown in the Northeast, they have not been commercially produced in this region for over a hundred years. With this loss of regional production knowledge, and the advancements of cropping science and the development of new varieties over the last few decades, a great need has been identified for regionspecific science-based research on this reemerging crop. Additionally, the vast majority of hops production in the United States occurs in the arid Pacific Northwest on a very large scale, which is very different from hops production in the humid Northeast where the average hopyard is well under 10 acres. Knowledge is needed on how to produce hops on a small-scale in our climate. With this in mind, in August of 2010, UVM Extension initiated an organic hops variety trial at Borderview Research Farm in Alburgh, VT. The UVM Extension hopyard is trialing 22 publicly-available hop varieties, and 3 additional varieties from Dr. John Henning’s breeding program in Oregon. The goals of these efforts are to find hop varieties that not only grow well in the Northeast and demonstrate disease and pest resistance in combination with high yields, but also present desirable characteristics to brewers. Hops are a perennial crop, and most varieties do not reach peak production until year three. The results and observations from the first and second year hopyard can be found on the UVM Extension Northwest Crops and Soils website: www.uvm.edu/extension/cropsoil/hops. The following are the results from the third year of production