Hops in New York State

Posted At : December 8, 2008 9:26 PM | Posted By : mapitarr
Related Categories: Hops

Marc Pitarresi ‘10

Food For Thought Seminar, Fall 2008

Hops in New York State-

As I had recently turned twenty-one upon choosing a topic for this blog, I thought that there could be no better entry into legality than to explore the history of hops in New York State. To aid me in my research, I traveled to The Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, New York, to enlist the help of resident hops expert, Wayne Coursen. A solidly built man of about sixty, Wayne looked exactly what I imagined a hops expert ought to look, bald with a white beard and dirty overalls, and a demeanor that told me he was no stranger to hard work. Wayne would have looked right at home alongside the brewers from the Sam Adams commercials. After showing me the fields and hops mounds, Wayne set about telling me about the history of hops.
Historical records show that beer has been brewed for thousands of years, dating back to the days of ancient Mesopotamia. The so-called “beer” from this time period, however, would taste nothing like the beer we are accustomed to today. Ancient beer that was consumed in ancient Mesopotamia was a mixture of fermented barley and water, whose sweetness led it to become known as “sweet beer”. This “sweet beer” had to be consumed quickly as it would spoil within two days of being brewed. “Sweet beer,” now commonly referred to as “wort,” is far too sweet and is unpleasant to the modern palate to drink. Beer as we know it today did not exist until the discovery of hops.

Hops were first discovered in Germany in A.D. 736 Initially, hops were used as a preservative, due to the presence of a resin called lupalin. There are two broad categories of hops, noble hops and aroma hops. Aroma hops are more commonly used, and is added to the barley and water mixture known as wort. The hops plant consists of the bine and the blossom (or flower). A bine is a climbing plant that climbs by its shoots around a support (generally a pole or stake in the ground). The blossom is the portion of the plant that is used in the brewing process. It was soon discovered, however, that in addition to its use as a preservative, the hops flower had a powerful and pleasant aroma (referred to as “hoppiness” in Sam Adams beer commercials). Also, the Alpha acids in hops negated the overpowering sweetness of wort by making beer more bitter. Simply put, the more hops used in brewing, the more acidic it is, which leads to a more bitter taste and a stronger aroma. Interestingly, most of the taste difference in different types of beer can be attributed to the amount of hops used in brewing. For example, India Pale Ales, or I.P.A.’s, are not the result of a special concoction by a brewmaster, but rather a matter of necessity. As history has repeatedly shown, alcohol is the close companion of the military. The British colony of India was no exception. In order to survive the long sea voyage from Britain to India, a substantial amount of hops was needed to ensure that the beer reached the British soldiers without spoiling. Thus, I.P.A.’s are characterized by their slightly bitter, “hoppy” flavor. Hops made the journey across the Atlantic to the colonies in 1629. It was not until the Industrial Revolution made its way to America, however, that the first commercial hop farm was established in New York State in neighboring Madison County in 1808.

As knowledgeable as he was about the botanical specifics of hops, Wayne’s eyes began to light up when I asked him about hops with specific regard to New York State. Hops are perennials, which are closely related to hemp and marijuana. Nineteenth-century farmers as well as modern breweries replace their roots every 10-12 years, after which time they tend to lose their aromatic potency. It is said, however, that wild hops can continue to sprout upwards of a hundred years. Hops generally grow to between 18-20 feet, and sometimes as high as 30 feet. Interestingly, because of the Coriolis effect, hops only grow around their poles counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. 19th century farmers were particularly fond of hops, as they required very little care compared to other crops. Hops are generally planted in a small mound. Three poles are then insertd in the ground, in a sort of inverse-teepee shape, with the base being narrow and top being wide. By the mid-1800’s it became more economical to use wire rather than this three-pole method, as the average farmer owned between 5-10 acres, this would save a great deal of money spent on poles. Depending upon variety, hops were generally harvested in late August or early September, which gave farmers a window of 2-3 weeks in which to harvest them. Particularly clever farmers would intentionally grow several varieties of hops in order to stretch harvest time, and in turn, produce a greater yield. Because hops are relatively easy to harvest and because farmers had other, more difficult crops to harvest, farmers would often hire people from the city to harvest their hops. Thus, farmers would send word to cities throughout New York State such as Albany, Troy, Schenectady, Utica, Syracuse, and Rochester inviting people to come and harvest hops. And because people in cities at the time were generally rather downtrodden economically, people (men and women alike) would come in droves to breathe the fresh country air. Men would be put to work removing the poles, which entailed cutting the vine at the bottom, pulling out the pole, and laying the pole across a box, where the women would then pick off the blossoms. Wayne went to great trouble to impress upon me that harvesting hops was considered great fun, a break from the monotony of city life. Large parties were often thrown at night (the origin of the modern day "sock-hop"), where the workers from the city could blow off steam and meet new people. There were also quirks and traditions in the harvesting process itself. For example, if a vine grew in a loop, the men were allowed to kiss a woman through the loop, similar to mistletoe at Christmas. For a day’s work, men would generally earn 65 cents, whereas women could make as little as fifty cents and as much as $1, depending on how much and how quickly the hops were picked. Wayne chuckled as he told me of how female patrons of the Farmers' Museum were often upset upon hearing that women made less, and then perked up upon learning that they had the potentially to earn more than the men.

The hops were dried in what was known as the Hop House, a four-room, two-story building. The blossoms would be placed in one of the upstairs room, roughly a foot thick, upon a slattered floor on top of a cheese cloth. In the room underneath was a wood stove, with pipes running the length of the room to ensure even heat distribution. The ideal temperature for the blossoms to reach was about 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Because this step was so crucial to the finished product, this was done by the farmer himself. The next day, the blossoms would be moved to the other upstairs room where they would be allowed to cool to room temperature. The hops would then be pushed through a hole in the floor into a hop press in the other room on the first floor. The hops would need to be pressed for the sake of ease in transport. The 19th century saw the use of two different types of hop press, the lever press and the screw presses. The screw press was prevalent in the earlier half of the 19th century, in which a large screw was turned around a large beam in the room to push the press down on the hops. The lever press, as the name suggests, used a large lever to push the press down. Both presses were cased with burlap to hold the blossoms, which were pressed into bales, much like hay, with the average bale weighing 180lbs.

Hops were a tremendously profitable industry in New York State in the 19th century, with hops selling for as much as $1.10/lb. By 1860, 90% of all American hops came from Otsego, Madison, and Schoharie counties in upstate New York. Cooperstown, New York was known as “The King of Hops.” Today, the hops produced in New York State has largely been reduced to use in local microbreweries. Many attribute this to the contagion of the Blue Mold Blight in 1913. While this is true, Wayne told me, it is not entirely so. Wayne cited three main contributing factors to the failure of the New York State hops industry. The average acre of land in New York State can yield between 500lbs. and 600lbs. of hops. With westward expansion, lands were discovered in northern California, Oregon, and Washington that could yield 1,500-1,600lbs/acre. This drove the price of hops down and decreased farmers profit margins. The second step in the decline of the New York State hops industry was the middle man. With so many other crops to worry about, farmers started hiring people to go to the breweries and sell their hops for them. These middle men began demanding higher and higher shares of the profits, which further diminished the farmers profit margins. The Blue Mold Blight was a type of mold that, if not eliminated, would kill the hops. The cost of the fungicide, however, was the final blow to the farmer’s profit margins, the New York State hops industry collapsed, never to recover beyond the microbreweries that exist today.