Craft brewers are clamoring for local sources of hops, and farmers are re-examining the industry's economic potential.
Waterville, NY -- Mary Rose Durfee started helping her family harvest hops at their Waterville farm when she was just 7. “It was an endless job, and it all had to be done by hand,” said Durfee, describing the time-consuming process of collecting the tiny cones that add bitterness and aroma to beer.
The state’s first recorded hop crop was planted in a Bouckville field in 1808 by Massachusetts native James Coolidge. It went on to reign in the fields of Central New York for more than a century. By 1880, Madison County in conjunction with two others in the state produced 80 percent of the country’s hops.
Durfee, now 94, said harvesting the crop was a community collaboration when her family bought their hop farm in 1920. Workers were brought in by train from Syracuse and Utica and boarded at private homes. When one field was done, the teams moved on to neighboring fields. Schools even let students out to help during the month-long harvest season, Durfee said.
Although large-scale production of the crop ended in the 1900s due to disease, competition and Prohibition, the crop is enjoying a local resurgence today as craft brewers clamor for local sources, and farmers re-examine the industry’s economic potential. The state’s 62 production breweries account for nearly 50,000 jobs and $1.37 billion in wages, with a total economic contribution of $4 billion a year.
To support the growing industry, a group of farmers, brewers and agriculture advocates have planted a hops harvester at Morrisville State College, which farmers from across the region will be able to use to process their plants.
They hope the equipment will be the first step toward developing the New York State Hops and Beer Institute in Madison County to promote the area’s hop houses, farms and breweries. Plans include a museum; education center with classroom courses in hop production and beer making; tasting rooms filled with New York state brews; a dining room featuring locally grown foods; and a hands-on cooking theater.
“We have the potential in Madison County to turn this into the hops and brewing side of what has been done in the Finger Lakes with grapes and wine,” said Madison County Tourism Executive Director Jim Walter Friday. He made his remarks during a preview of the harvester to kick off Madison County Historical Society’s annual toast to the hop empire. The festivities continue today with brew pairing and food sampling in Oneida.
The massive piece of equipment, which arrived at Morrisville State last month, was purchased with a $30,000 legislative grant arranged with the help of state Assemblyman Bill Magee, D-Nelson.
Although new to Madison County, the harvester itself dates to the 1970s. It had to be flown in from Germany, because of the lack of appropriately sized equipment in the United States. Most of the country’s hops are grown in the Pacific northwest, where the smallest commercial hop farms have 200 acres.
In contrast, Northeast Hop Alliance President Larry Fisher and his wife, Kate, started Foothill Hops in 2001 with a single hop plant and now operate several fields off Route 46. Fisher, an electrician by trade, studied historical patents to build his own mechanical harvester, which shortened the process that took more than 40 minutes per plant by hand to 23 seconds.
The nonprofit Northeast Hop Alliance will oversee the Morrisville State harvester, which that separates the cones from stems and other debris using a system of conveyor belts, compressors and cutting augers.
Durfee displayed a wide smile when she saw the hulking machine beside the college’s heifer barn Friday morning. “My handpicking days are over,” she said.
Contact Alaina Potrikus at 470-3252 or apotrikus@syracuse.com.