Little by little, a new crop is beginning to take root in Indiana.
Some growers have started to produce hops to help quench demand for the plants as the craft beer industry expands nationwide and in Indiana. The movement has created a supply crunch, which new hop producers in the Midwest could eventually alleviate.
“We’re definitely seeing a lot of microbreweries,” said Mark Burton, a home brewer in Fort Wayne. “Within our region, we’re seeing them come out of the woodwork.”
He and two partners are working to start a small hop yard this year in order to maintain a supply for their beers as they would like to open a brewpub downtown.
Hops are the critical flavoring ingredient in beers, giving them their bitter taste. As a crop, they’re almost foreign to Indiana. But, within the past few years, a few farms began producing small quantities in the state.
Exact figures on hops production in Indiana are scarce due to the small yields. Eight acres were harvested last year, according to estimates in the Hop Growers of America’s 2014 statistical report. Among neighboring states, Michigan produced 300 acres of hops, Ohio had 30 acres and Illinois had 10 last year.
Hops are traditionally grown in the Pacific Northwest states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Washington alone accounted for 28,858 acres, or about three-quarters of the 38,910 acres of hops that were harvested in the U.S. last year, the HGA’s statistics showed. The harvest was up by more than 10 percent over 2013.
But hops production last year was still below levels from 20 years ago. Supplies switched from market saturation to limited availability, U.S. Agriculture Department data shows.
Prices also fluctuated over the last 10 years. The average price for hops was $1.94 per pound in 2005. It jumped to $4.03 a pound in 2008 and averaged $3.83 a pound last year.
By the start of this decade, the craft brew industry began growing in popularity and numbers nationwide. Breweries, demanding quality hops, are buying more hop contracts, causing a supply strain, said Ann George, executive director of Washington-based HGA.
Indiana has about 90 breweries now, according to the Brewers of Indiana Guild’s website. That’s up from approximately 80 near the start of 2014.
“Our demand for hops have significantly increased over the last two years,” Tiffany Pryor, marketing coordinator for Fort Wayne-based Mad Anthony Brewing Co., wrote in an email. “Our consumers are craving hoppy beers.”
Brewers and consumers also want more products grown in their regions.
Hop production in Indiana currently involves farms using about an acre or less, said Spencer Gray, president of Sugar Creek Hops. The Boone County-based operation is Indiana’s largest hops grower with about five acres in production.
“We’re sort of at ground zero on a new industry in Indiana,” Gray said. “It’s exciting.”
“We’re starting from the ground up out here,” said Natasha Cerruti, a research assistant at Purdue University.
She counted at least 10 farms that were growing hops by the end of last year. That’s up from the three she knew of in 2013.
“That’s a huge increase over a year,” she said.
Cerruti is helping build a hops yard at Purdue’s Meigs farm near West Lafayette so researchers can study which varieties of the plants grow best in Indiana, what the effect Indiana’s soil and climate would have on the flavor of hops, and effective growing methods.
Growing hops requires a different setup than those used for crops typically associated with Indiana.
They have shoots that climb up objects using bines. Hop yards build trellises using tall poles evenly spaced in rows and connected by heavy cables. Twine is strung from the cables to the ground which the hops will use to grow.
Building one is expensive.
A Michigan State University report finds establishing a five-acre hop yard in Michigan could cost about $68,000. Producers could expect low net revenue in the first five years as they face additional costs for harvesting and processing. A full yield of hops takes about three to five years to grow.
The hop yard Burton and his partners are building is on a smaller scale. He, Shawn Buchan and Kent Schuster are putting up trellises on a half-acre of land near Winchester Road. They plan to start planting as soon as the ground thaws, he said.
The trio expects to grow several varieties of hops, mostly to create different flavors for their beers, which they brew under the brand Olde School Brauhaus. They also plan to open a brewpub near Calhoun and Harrison streets by the end of the year.
“We’re in the process of getting commercial property acquired and getting everything going,” Burton said.
Sugar Creek focuses on growing hops and serving as a broker between growers and brewers. The operation launched last year.
“It’s a fun industry, but it’s a ton of work and some people don’t get that,” he said.
Gray believes interest in growing hops will continue to rise through 2015, and he predicts at least 20 acres could be growing in Indiana by next year.
As the hops industry emerges in the state, producers are gathering into a new organization called the Indiana Hop Growers Association. Gray expects the group could formally launch next month, then work to help growers by applying for grants and providing shared resources.