The of a freshly opened Colorado craft beer sounds almost indigenous.
With more than 300 craft breweries, and counting, plus an estimated 166 percent increase in total acres planted in hops from 2014 to 2016, Colorado joins the nation in a dramatic growth spurt that, among other things, has dethroned Germany as the top hop producer in the world for the first time in decades, according to the . In 2016, there were 53,213 acres of hops growing in the U.S., compared with 45,503 acres in Germany.
In Colorado, growers including Lance Williamson had about 200 acres of hops planted this year, and craft brewers assure farmers that demand is far from going flat.
Williamson affectionately refers to the Colorado Hop Yard in Delta as his accidental hop farm.
When he and his wife bought the Delta farm in 2000, Williamson started out growing raspberries, but took a leap with hops in 2010.
“If you had asked me in 2008 if I was going to have 16 acres of hops in a few years, I would have said, ‘No, I don’t believe that’s true,’ ” Williamson said.
Something — what, exactly, he’s not sure — compelled him to research the up-and-coming crop before it took off in Colorado. Williamson, who spends the offseason in Denver, claims to be among the first to start commercial hop farming in the state.
While Colorado’s hop acreage pales in comparison with states in the Pacific Northwest, like Washington, which is home to more than an estimated 37,000 hop acres, it still contributes to the U.S.’s clamber to the top of the global hop heap.
Even with the steady growth in total , experts say the Colorado hop market won’t be over-saturated any time soon.
“For Colorado, there’s way more demand than there is than supply, without question,” said Bill Bauerle, horticulture professor and plant physiologist at Colorado State University. “We could have thousands and thousands of acres growing here before we could even get close to coming to what our actual demand is.”
The catalyst behind the thirst for local hops? Beer snobs.
Christening Colorado “the Napa Valley of beer,” Bauerle said there is a larger market here than most places. Colorado craft beer barons, who Baurerle said are known for using at least 10 times as many hops per beer compared with large-scale breweries, are eager to boast of their native ingredients.
The continuing local brew heavyweight, Miller-Coors subsidiary AC Golden, snaps up about half the hops grown in Colorado for its line of Colorado Native beers, including the bulk of Williamson’s crop.
“I’m a craft-beer enthusiast, and their beer is really good,” Williamson said, tacking on with mirth: “It’s probably because of my hops, but, you know.”
Glenn “Knip” Knippenberg, co-founder and president of AC Golden, has doled out big bucks to local growers to help offset the costs of pricey infrastructure and equipment since he started Colorado Native beers in 2010.
“We’ve invested well over a million dollars that we have paid in excess of what we could have bought those same varieties of hops for in Washington,” Knippenberg said.
But the claim of 100 percent local ingredients is worth the cash, Knippenberg said.
Back in 2009, Williamson said there wasn’t much information available about hop farming.
“There didn’t need to be,” he said. “It was just such a closed farming culture in the Northwest.”
That’s changed over the years, Williamson said, as has his own knowledge of the craft.
“Dare I say, we kind of know what we’re doing now,” he said. “It’s nice to finally have a little bit of history to work with.”
A driving factor of the rise of North American hop farming came when a California man started renovating vintage commercial harvesting machines that Williamson said were found only in Germany.
“That was the game-changer,” Williamson said. “Without that machine, you just can’t do it. We got one, and off we went.”
To grow, the crops’ vines are wound around hanging strings.
“You have to get that little bine started, but once it starts, it wants to climb,” Williamson said. After the three-week bine “training” process, Williamson said it’s watering, weeding, fertilizing and repeating for the rest of the season.
With the expensive infrastructure and equipment purchasing behind him — what Williamson believes are the main deterrents for wannabe hop farmers — he said the next focus for his business will be growing profits.
“So far, I’ve returned a lot of money into my farm,” he said. “Financially, we’ll see what’s to come. I think that’s yet to be determined. I’m fairly certain that would be universal among hop farmers. The financially hopefully should get better. I’m optimistic.”
First things first.
Williamson expected to finish his seventh hop harvest Sept. 1.
“I’m tired, I’m beat up and I’m ready to put a wrap on this season,” he said. “I’m 53 years old. In harvest years, that’s like 100. I’ll be back to 53 in a few days.”
