Hop Farming Belongs In Vermont
Harvest season on the farm
Why Vermont? It’s a question that all of our producers and craftspeople answer every day. Our state has a rich reputation for creating products of superior quality and integrity. Our beers, cheeses, and maple products (just to name a few) are nationally and even internationally recognized. More than the quality alone, though, the Vermont name carries with it a set of values: pride in community, support of local workers, and a sense of belonging to the natural landscape around us.
That’s why the present state of the Vermont craft beer industry is somewhat contradictory. We have a thriving network of brewers creating outstanding products, but they’ve historically needed to use ingredients that couldn’t be less local. Nearly all American-grown hops are produced in the Pacific Northwest by a handful of giant corporations. Between proprietary hops and locked-down contracts, the corporate hop industry looks entirely different to the small-scale, local food system that Vermont has worked so hard to maintain.
We believe that when craft beer lovers become aware of this model, they’ll feel passionate about supporting local production of hops. After all, we have a strong sense of pride in our local agriculture. Vermonters believe in the basic principle of supporting our neighbors and investing in the local community. From our local dairy farmers to our cheese producers and our local restauranteurs who source local produce through the summer, we consider doing the right thing to be a key component of having a successful business in this state.
Plus, we’ve already put our own stamp on the beer industry. The New England IPA was created in Vermont, and continues to be a phenomenon in the industry. Heady Topper by The Alchemist has created an entirely new identity for craft beer. Brewers like Lawson’s Finest, Foam and others are leaders on the national scene. Vermont’s own style of beers is distinctive, but there’s a dissonance between that strong local identity and the sourcing of ingredients from all the way across the country.
Our hope is that by raising consumer awareness around the business model of the craft beer industry today (at least when it comes to how hops are grown and distributed), we’ll be able to solve this contradiction between how we all imagine our local beer to be and how it actually is under the hood. After all, from brewers to beer drinkers, we all take a great deal of pride in the quality and reputation of Vermont beer. The biggest thing we can do to make it even better is to support our local food system with each sip.
