Pownal Hops Grower Sets Tours, Opens Brewing Supply Shop
 The company set its roots, literally, down in 2013 and has grown since. This year it expects to produce a substantial harvest of the hop flowers used for beermaking. |
The company is in its third year of growing hops on property on Route 7 and at end of July, the owners are opening up the yard for those sightseers to get a closer look.
Concurrently, the company is showcasing its new home-brew supply store at the nearby Hoppy Valley Vermont Tasting Room.
"Over the last 2 1/2 to three years, we've had hundreds of people buttonhole us, taking pictures," co-owner Peter Hopkins said on Tuesday.
"It's about time we open the place up and show people what we're doing."
The company is holding an open house at the hop yard on Friday, July 31, from 2 until 8 p.m.
The event builds on the Bennington Craft of Beer Home Brew Challenge the next day in downtown Bennington. That festival is being put on by the Bennington County Industrial Corp., the Tap House at Catamount Glass, and Madison's Brewing Co.
Hoppy Valley's home-brew supply store will hold a grand opening on that Sunday, the day after the Bennington festival.
The hop yard, started three years ago, has been producing more and more hops each year. In the first year, Hopkins said the yield was about 5 pounds, which was enough for some local home brewers. Last year yielded 100 pounds and was enough to sell to local breweries.
"This is supposed to be their first year of substantial harvest," Hopkins said.
The hop-growing operation isn't typical though. Hopkins and John Armstrong started the business with a focus on returning to the "roots of Vermont's" hop growing. The two handcrafted teepee-like structures with ropes to pull the hops up and down. The business even kicked off with a community hop planting party, which mirrored an old-fashioned barn raising.
"The structures we built were typical of 19th-century hop growing," Hopkins said.
Besides growing four standard varieties — Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, and Nugget — the owners have traveled all over the state seeking the oldest hops plants they could find to grow.
"We just came across one early this spring that was a native hop. It was here when Americans got here," Hopkins said.
That is in the company's nursery right now with some 250 others after the hops, which were found growing up an ancient maple tree, were harvested. On the yard itself, there are some ancient plants among the 550 that were planted. The company is looking to specialize in heirloom hops.
About a year after planting the hops, the two entrepreneurs opened Hoppy Valley's Vermont Tasting Room at the Hillside House. The small gift shop that operated inside the furniture store, just a few hundred yards over the Massachusetts border, was converted to a tasting room to showcase Vermont beers, wine and food.
Now, they've expanded that into the home brew supply shop.
"Being hops growers and operating a tasting room, it seemed a natural extension for the business, and has been well received," said Armstrong.
The store is already open but they've kept it quiet to work out the kinks. The grand opening and open house will be from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 2.
Tags: agriculture, brewing, tastings,
