Our Mission
Bring Hops Back to Northern California
Our mission is to provide a structured organization for the promotion of local hop growing and craft beer by sharing research, knowledge, resources, marketing, and a common set of farming principles - recognizing our role as responsible stewards of the land.
Join us
Become a Member
Whether you’re a commercial grower, hobbyist, brewer or local hops champion, we’d love to have you join our community.
Why Local Hops?
“If you are going to grow hops commercially on a
small scale you have to find your niche. You have to develop a relationship with the brewers... From the grower’s standpoint, get out there and talk to your brewers. From a brewer’s stand point, it is going to take the brewer to step up and say, ‘Let’s work together on this’ because it is an expensive endeavor. In the long run it will be worthwhile.”
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A Rich Hop Growing History
Northern California Has More Than 150 Craft Breweries
Sonoma County Alone Has 23+ Craft Breweries
Wet Hops and the Local Advantage
Craft breweries are always looking for ways to make a unique beer. Seasonal wet-hopped beers have become an important part of the craft repertoire. The key to great wet-hopped beer is the freshness of the hops, and it doesn't get any fresher than local grown hops. We can have brewers out to the hop yard days before harvest and coordinate with brewing schedules so hops are going into the kettle within hours of picking.
“As for the most exciting beer, it’s hard to say, along the way we’ve done so many innovative things such as 100% “wet” hop beers where we used all freshly picked hops from our hopyard, several different barrel-aged beers, a collaboration with an Italian brewer friend where we brewed with pepper, honey, roses, and violets, as well as some super hoppy IPAs. If you had to pin me down to one brew, I’d say HopTime Harvest Ale.”
News Media
Local Hops in Action
Farming Principles
Clean ingredients, clean beer
Maximize water efficiency by continuously re-evaluating water usage through awareness of plant uptake, evaporation, weather conditions, soil drainage
Evaluate and strategize the geographical relationship of farmland within local watershed in order to minimize run-off of excess nitrogenous compounds and harmful sediment into drainage, streams, creeks, wetlands and rivers
Limit use of fertilizers and chemicals to those which are organic in nature and sustainably sourced, while minimizing the total amount of external nutrient inputs
Minimize waste products leaving the farm by employing practices such as creative repurposing, recycling, and on-site composting
Build towards a symbiotic and natural pest and disease management system through use of mutually beneficial plant species, natural predator insects such as lady bugs and yellow jackets, and early detection and isolation of sources of mildew or other fungus based diseases
Provide as fresh and high quality hop product as possible while respecting the land we grow on and minimizing our impact on the environment
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Events
Members
Alexander Valley Hops
Barrel Brothers Brewing Company
Capracopia Hops at Redwood Hill Farm
Hawk Hills Hops