My wife, (unbelievably so as she detests beer) pointed out to me that there are ALOT of hop growers in Virginia. It would seem I’m living in the buckle of the HOP-belt. So as my post eludes, how far would you drive to procure locally grown hops? There’s a hop farm near Lexington that I can get to in under 2 hours, and as an added bonus, check out the Devil’s Backbone tasting room as well. I’ve never used fresh hops before, so I think it would be cool to post my first use of a local growers hops and brew for a competition. Kind of a “follow it from beginning to end”.
Anyway… how far would YOU drive?
1 hour.
To me local means within an hour driving time. Beyond that isnt local anymore. But I prefer pellets, so 45 mi no utes to my LHBS.
My wise ass answer is the 75 feet to my hops yard or down the cellar stairs to my freezer for the hops I vacuum packed and froze. Seriously, I drive 45 minutes for locally malted grains. Whenever I have to drive somewhere I incorporate other stuff like checking out shops and going out to eat etc. So what the hell, drive an hour or two and check out that area and make a day of it.
If it isn’t within an hour of driving I don’t consider it local. The only hop fields local to me are ones in backyards of other homebrewers.
I either walk to the backyard or drive 7 min. to a local organic hop farm.
Some people have all the luck… ;D
Here in the Ohio valley we are ground zero for a multitude of hop growing problems (esp powdery mildew). Almost without exception the local hops are poor quality. There have been multiple groups who have tried to grow hops here. All have failed. Yet in the late 1800’s this area was one of the biggest growing regions in the country. Makes me wonder about the quality of the hops back then.