'Old tradition of growing hops making a comeback on Canton farm
Posted on Tuesday, July 20, 2010 by By Stina Sieg
By working the land at their farm in Canton, Scott Grahl and Stephanie Willis hope they’re not only carrying on an old tradition but also making a new one. Like their families did more than 100 years ago, the couple weeds and hoes and harvests. It’s a safe bet, though, that their ancestors would never think to grow what they do. Like a small but increasing number in the Southeast, they produce hops. “I never imagined I’d be doing what I’m doing,” said Grahl, who opened Winding River Hops with Willis in 2009. Now in its second year,
their farm is one of the two featured at the Second Annual Hops Farm Tour. The day, which starts at 8 a.m. Saturday, July 31, will begin at Winding River, continue to Hop’n Blueberry Farm in Black Mountain and culminate at the French Broad Brewing Company in Asheville.
“You’re actually going to know how to brew beer, from start to finish,” said Grahl.
His education on the subject began three years ago, back when he and Willis were kicking around ideas about how to use Willis’ fallow farmland. A preliminary plan was dogwoods, but when Grahl heard a friend mention the worldwide shortage of hops, a seed was planted in his mind.
“From that point on, I have read everything, talked to everyone I know searching for information on hops,” Grahl said.
Long before he and Willis started their farming operation, Grahl was working with hops farmers on the West Coast and with every extension agent he could. He was even in contact with a professor from Rutger’s University who was studying the plant. All this turned out to be a prelude to 2009, when he and Willis applied for and were awarded a Western North Carolina AgOptions Grant aimed at diversification at farms that formally raised tobacco. The North Carolina Cooperative Extension, the Tobacco Trust Fund and the Rural Advancement Foundation International funded the grant.
Soon after the grant came in, the couple got their hops into the ground (and the sky). The plants, known as bines, now twist around twine that is suspended 18 feet above a 1-acre patch of Willis’ land. Though the hops are rooted in the earth, their green tendrils and bright leaves seem like they’re floating. In reality, however, support cables attached to massive poles bolster the acre’s 1,320 plants. It’s hard for the layman to see, but there are three types of hops here: sterling, glacier and nugget. If all goes well with this test patch, Grahl and Willis have another 29 acres upon which they could expand.
For now, however, their farm is still too new for them to think of such things. Though the crop is in its second season, Grahl finds that he’s still learning about it constantly.
“Every day is a first,” he said.
Steepening his learning curve is the fact that hops are so rare around these parts. Hundreds of years ago, Virginia was the hops capital of the country, but thanks to centuries of disease and other issues, hops are almost solely raised on the West Coast now. They’re practically unheard of in the East, which makes Grahl and his fellow hops farmers “guinea pigs,” he said.
He doesn’t seem to mind, though. He described the shared knowledge between he and the other producers as “great.”
“Kind of the attitude of the growers has been, ‘if you succeed, I succeed,’” he said.
The cooperative spirit has been important given how difficult raising hops can be. While describing their growing process, Grahl emphasized one word: labor-intensive.
He and Willis must battle powdery mildew and weeds, to which hops are especially susceptible. They are also committed to handpicking the hops, which makes the end product more consistent, if so much more time consuming. Because of this, friends as far away as Sarasota have come to help the couple.
In addition to the physical labor, Grahl and Willis must work to combat the conventional wisdom regarding hops, which says they must be grown in far-flung states. Even local breweries use dried, pelletized hops from thousands of miles away. Grahl, however, doesn’t feel this has to be the case. He’d like to see the introduction of local hops that are fresh, straight off the bine. These so-called “wet” hops, which would only keep for about a week in a cooler, would offer an alternative way of thinking about beer. In this brave new world of brewing, hops would as local as any other kind of produce.
In recent months, Grahl has pitched this new hops vision to every brewery in the area and to the public at various brewing festivals. So far, four local breweries have decided to test out the hops, as has one brewing supply company.
“It’s been a different adventure,” Grahl said.
It’s certainly not one that Willis ever thought she’d be on, though she has dived into it whole-heartedly. Along with Grahl, she has been involved with much of the research and planning and was happy to volunteer her acre of land to the project. For her, there was enough excitement in hops to get through her family’s initial surprise at the idea. All farmers, other family members originally thought the couple was “crazy,” she said.
But Willis prefers to think of Grahl and herself as pioneers.
“We’re going to open the doors for other people,” she said. “We’re going to be like the hops frontier.”
It’s that kind of dedication that describes Willis, Grahl and their farm so well. It’s clear hops aren’t just a hobby for these two, but a big adventure, one they feel has “unlimited potential,” Grahl said. This doesn’t mean it this is for everyone, however. When describing his love for hops, Grahl was quick to throw out a warning.
“Passion, you’ve got to have passion,” he said. “If you can’t think about hops all day and night, then you might not want to get into it, because if you don’t have that passion, it’s work.”
Luckily for him, his passion for hops doesn’t seem to take effort — unlike nearly everything else about the crop.
For more information on the Hops Farm Tour, which costs $10 per carload, call Erin Bonito at 255-5522.
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