Page 30 - The Valley Table - Summer 2021

Identifying the suitable landscape for growing hops is a process. They can be finicky when pitted against the strong winds, short growing seasons, humid summers, and clay soils native to the Hudson Valley.
Stuart Farr, founder of Hudson Valley Hops and Grains, found the perfect spot in Ancramdale. The USDA-certified organic farm produces a host of crops, including wheat, rye, buckwheat, and black beans, in addition to supplying local makers like Roe Jan Brewing Co. and Abandoned Hard Cider with hops.
“The first thing to know about hops is they’re perennial plants. Planting only happens once in a generation,”
says Farr, who started his 1,000-plant hopyard in 2015. “These can last anywhere from 20 to 40 years, depending on disease.”
The season starts in April, when hop shoots first pop out of the ground, appearing like spears of asparagus. Growers collect the strongest shoots, then manually prune the rest. Hop plants grow up a trellis or coir, a string made from the fibrous material that lines coconuts. Farmers “train” the hop plants by winding them clockwise around the string. The plants then continue this pattern on their own, following the sun.
Throughout the summer, these shoots, called bines, extend up to 18 feet in the air. Similar to wild ramps, the edible shoots are a popular seasonal offering at local markets like Obercreek Farm. During the harvest in late August, Farr cuts each string and put the plants through
a hop harvester, where counter-rotating hairbrushes flick cones speedily off the bines.
“Cones have to be dried pretty much immediately,” Farr says. “We put them in a big homemade oast, which is a very large drying tray that has air blowing through it. The hops are dried down to eight percent moisture, and then stored near freezing.”
At Orange County Hops in Walden, harvesting and sorting cones is a family affair. “My dad drives the tractor; my wife ties the strings; and my son, daughter, and in-laws all help me,” says owner Michael Antonelli. A retired music teacher, Antonelli and his wife, Alva, planted hops on their 18-acre farm in 2014 after experimenting with small feeders for
their home-brewing club. He built a hop processor with his brother-in-law and converted a trailer on his property into an oast house for drying. On sorting days, the farm hosts up to 20 people for a massive picnic after the labor-intensive process of hand-sorting the cones. On a good year, the team harvests 300 pounds of the green stuff.
After working with major producers in the Catskills, Antonelli started the fully functioning Brewery at Orange County Hops in 2018 and opened a tasting room in a former retail space once located on a dairy farm.
“We’re 100 percent New York State, right down to the bar that I made for the tasting room from oak trees on our property,” Antonelli says. Black Dirt Malt Company and Hudson Valley Malt supply the grain, while Antonelli grows Cascade, Centennial, Newport, Chinook, CTZ, Nugget, and other varieties for traditional West Coast-style IPAs.
Recently, he even found success growing a wild variety of hops harvested from the side of the road. “The hops that
28 the valley table
june – aug 2021
photos courtesy of orange county hops