We recently came back from the South Atlantic Hops conference at Virginia Tech and are bursting with enthusiasm! We learned a TON, met other great hop growers and brewers and have a new design for how we’re going to lay out our hopyard.
But first - the conference. It was two days of non-stop hops! We talked soil health, we talked varietals, we talked marketing...every aspect of hop growing from the microbes in the soil that feed your hops to helping brewers brew with them! I can’t get over how amazing this conference was. Ultimately, the underlying vibe of the weekend was that you’re not going to get rich growing hops, but you CAN make a decent living - after a lot of hard work and preparation. (Something we’re eager and willing to do!) There simply isn’t a lot of information on growing hops in Virginia because it is such a new industry here, but growers and brewers alike are willing to help each other out to support the entire industry. Did you know there are only about 25 acres of commercially grown hops in Virginia?? Wild!
The financials break down to this: expect to spend about $18-$22,000 to set up an acre of hops, and then expect to net about $14,000 per acre every year. Now - that isn’t a lot of money, especially considering how much work is involved spraying, fertilizing, training, pruning, etc. BUT, 3.5 acres and you’re talking about $50,000 a year...not a bad living!
So here’s where we are will our yard - we moved the two rows closest to the tree line into more sun. Sun and adequate airflow will do a LOT to hedge your bets against fungus and pests.
Our rows are 12 ft apart and our poles will be about 40 ft apart down the rows. A vendor at the conference said 40 was your max as the wire will start to sag with the weight of full hop plants.
We’re going to start with 4 varietals, but haven’t narrowed them down yet. Our strategy is to do three buttering hops to take advantage of the IPA craze, but also do one aromatic hop in case the floor falls out from under the hoppy beer fad.
We’ve dug ditches down our rows to start prepping the soil - we turned the grass over and put it back in th ditches to kill it off and let it compost - this is doing two things - adding organic material to the soil and removing the sod that could choke out the hops.
We should soon be getting the results from our soil sample from Virginia Tech (free if you’re a commercial grower) and we’ll be able to order any soil admenments we’ll need. Once the poles go up we’ll order the plants - we’re going to start with plugs and not rhizomes but that’s another post for another day!!
I hope you enjoy watching our hop yard come along - it’s an exciting adventure I’m happy to be a part of! Please ask any questions you may have or leave a note if you grow your own!
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