Beer (rec.drink.beer) Discussing various aspects of that fine beverage referred to as beer. Including interesting beers and beer styles, opinions on tastes and ingredients, reviews of brewpubs and breweries & suggestions about where to shop.

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1 (permalink)   Report Post  
MikeMcG
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hoppy news in NY

Apologies if this is old news, but I don't remember seeing it before .
.. .
from <http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/business/index.ssf?/base/business-15/1077866940130380.xml>
BTW does anyone else find this a bit unlikely - where it says
something about how in the mid-1800s - early-1900s, 80% of the world's
commercial hops were from 3 NY counties?
cheers
MikeMcG
UK
____________________________________________
University, brewer help revive N.Y. hops
By WILLIAM KATES
The Associated Press
2/27/2004, 2:17 a.m. ET

ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) Pests, disease and Prohibition combined to ruin New
York state's once thriving hops industry a half-century ago, but a
researcher, brewer and several farmers are trying to lead a revival.
They released a new specialty beer this week made entirely from hops
grown in New York.

"My goal is to see what we can do over the next 50 years," Dan
Mitchell, owner of Ithaca Beer, said as the new brew, a pale ale, was
introduced.

"While the nostalgia is important, this is just a starting point of
where we could be going. It is a potential new industry. We would like
to see all New York-brewed beers use New York-grown hops," Mitchell
said.

Hops are a member of the hemp family. The dried ripe cones of the
female flowers are used for flavoring beer, ale and medicines.

From the mid-1800s through the early 1900s, three New York counties -
Madison, Otsego and Oneida accounted for 80 percent of the world's
commercially sold hops, said Dot Willsey of the Madison County
Historical Society.

But by the early 1950s, commercial hop growing was dead in New York,
said Keith Eisaman, whose family grew five acres of hops in Madison
County and were possibly the state's last hops farmers.

"It was 1951. I remember it because no one would come to buy our hops
- they're still in the kiln. Everybody was buying them from out west,"
said Eisaman, now 74.

Duncan Hilchey, a Cornell University senior extension associate,
helped develop the Northeast Hop Alliance, a group of farmers and
brewers trying to revive hop growing in New York.

Hilchey said New York's hops failed because they were not resistant to
disease like the newer varieties, nor could they produce the same
yields as those being grown in Washington and Oregon. Researchers and
historians have been looking at wild hops in New York to find any
remaining native varieties, but Hilchey said they likely hold little
promise because they will face the same disease and yield problems as
before.

Beginning two years ago, Hilchey surveyed microbreweries, brewpubs and
regional breweries and found that over two-thirds were interested in
buying regionally grown hops if they were available.

"It's not going to go back to the multiple tens of millions of pounds
we produced in the late 1800s. But it can become a small sideline
enterprise again for many farmers," Hilchey said.

The new beer is made with hops grown by Rick Pedersen, of Seneca
Castle, who started planting six years ago on a half-acre. He tried
five varieties but cut back to three after experimenting the first few
years. His hop crop consisted of the West Coast varieties Cascade,
Williamette and Mt. Hood.

"I like to grow different things," said Pedersen, who grows vegetables
on the rest of his 1,200-acre farm.

"I also like to drink quality beer. I had an idea that I would like my
own brewery some day. I've given up on that idea but I still wanted to
participate in the brewing industry," he said. "We started out of the
blue, and had no idea who we would sell to. But I figured if I grew it
they would come."

Production and packaging costs for New York growers are presently
about 2 1/2 times more than they are for West Coast growers, he said.
However, growers hope the new beer will become popular and bring a
consumer demand for more New York grown hops, Pedersen said.

On the Net:
http://www.northeasthopalliance.org
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
____________________________________________
  #2 (permalink)   Report Post  
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hoppy news in NY

MikeMcG wrote:

> BTW does anyone else find this a bit unlikely - where it says
> something about how in the mid-1800s - early-1900s, 80% of the world's
> commercial hops were from 3 NY counties?


Does seem an exageration. I checked my copy of ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF
BREWING (1903) but they don't have a lot of info on hop production.
The interesting thing is the years 1886-88 for imports and exports of hops.

1886 Export 13.5 million pounds Import 2.5 million pounds
1887 Export 260,721 pounds Import 18 million pounds
1888 Export 6.7 million pounds Import 5.6 million pounds

Looks like 1887 was the year of the blight, huh?

Most of US hop export went to the UK (in 1900, for example, the UK got
11 million pounds of US hops out of 12.5 million exported).

Most imported hops into the US came from Germany (1.2 million in 1900).

By 1901, New York was still the leading hop producer (in bales of about
200 pounds):

NY 76,500
OR 60,000
CA 50,000
WA 26,000
WI & ID 2,500

Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules

Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
My news reader/news server burped sf[_9_] General Cooking 1 18-07-2012 12:44 PM
Good news/Bad news +REC Aussie1 General Cooking 7 11-12-2010 08:44 PM
Good news/bad news Gloria P General Cooking 11 07-07-2008 01:00 AM
Terrapin 2007 Monster Beer Tour - Big Hoppy Monster [email protected] Beer 0 14-01-2008 03:45 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 10:26 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2025 FoodBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.
 

About Us

"It's about Food and drink"