From Empire Farm & Dairy magazine:
By DEBRA J. GROOM
Empire Farm & Dairy
Craft brewing has been a phenomenon for years in New York state and its momentum isn’t waning at all.
More and more craft breweries are opening across the state.
Statistics from the New York State Brewers Association show that in 2013-14, the craft brewing industry brought in more than $4 billion. There are about 240 craft breweries in the state now with about 50 more in planning.
The craft brewing industry boasts $450 million in tourism and brought in 3.66 million visits to breweries in the state. There also are 11,368 full-time jobs related to the craft brewing industry.
Like hard cideries, craft breweries have expanded their reach due to relaxed regulation and new laws passed in New York state.
One of the most important was the Farm Brewery License bill, that created a “Farm Brewery” license to allow craft brewers that use products grown in New York state to operate in a similar fashion to the state’s farm wineries.
State officials said this would lead to increased demand for locally grown farm products as well as expanded economic development and tourism.
This law allowed the farm breweries to run much the same as the farm wineries, which offer tours and have tasting rooms where visitors can sample the products and then buy the products.
“Craft breweries are a significant sector in our agricultural and tourism industries, and when they do well, our economy does well. I encourage New Yorkers to sample all of what our craft brewers have to offer,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a 2012 speech.
One of the newest craft breweries is Woodland Hop Farm and Fermentation, which opened just this year in Marcy, north of Utica. It is the first farm brewery in Oneida County.
Co-owner A.J. Spado said he and his co-owners are making 40 barrels of beer a month that is sold at their farm business on Trenton Road, not far from the SUNY Polytechnic Institute.
They bought their hops from another New York farmer this year, but this spring, they will plant 1 to 2 acres of hops at their site and increase that every year until they have from 6 to 10 acres.
“We try to use as many New York state ingredients as possible,” Spado said. “As of now, the hop varieties grown in New York state don’t allow hop forward beers to be completely brewed with local hops. Also, New York state maltsters are just getting into some of the specialty malts, so beers like stouts, IPAs, etc. still aren’t 100 percent NYS for us, yet.”
While Spado and his partners Keith Redhead and Nick Natishak are selling their beer out of their taproom now, they plan to eventually distribute their beer in the Syracuse/Utica/Albany areas.
The Great South Bay Brewing Co., located in Bay Shore on the south shore of Long Island, makes 29 beers -- three available all year and 26 seasonal brews.
Co-owner Rick Sobotka says the brewery began in 2010 and uses the highest quality malts and hops from New York state. They also have spent hours tinkering with recipes to come up with some extremely different tastes.
“When it comes to Bay brews, it’s not about how much we can make; it’s about how much better we can make it,” according to a writeup on its website. “It’s not about how fast we can turn it out, but about how fast the smile appears on your face when you taste it.”
Sobotka, a trained and licensed anesthesiologist, had always dreamed of opening a brewery. He began Great South Bay in a one barrel brewhouse of 1,400 square feet but soon grew into a 40,000-square-foot site and now makes 500 to 600 barrels (there are 31 gallons in a barrel) a month.
Great South Bay’s beers are available in half barrels and 1/6 barrel kegs (some beers are available in six-packs. The company distributes and sells throughout New York state.
“Two of our beers won gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival in Colorado,” Sobotka said. Those were: Specialty Beer category, 59 entries, winner was Hog Cabin; Pro-Am Competition, 91 entries, winner was Muscat Love.
To find out where to get Great South Bay’s beers, go to http://greatsouthbaybrewery.com/Bayfinder.php and put your zip code into the beer finder.
Anyone familiar with Central New York most likely knows Empire Brewing Co., with a brewpub and restaurant in the Armory Square section of downtown Syracuse.
This company has been brewing all types of craft beers since 1994 and prides itself on the buy local mantra -- meaning obtaining its ingredients from as close by as possible.
In fact, go to its website empirebrew.com and click on sustainability and there is a huge list of all the local companies Empire Brewing turns to for local ingredients for its beers and its food.
Probably the biggest endeavor for Empire in the coming months is the Empire Farmstead Brewery, which is supposed to open in the spring. According to its website, the “site will be developed for educational and beer production purposes. The property will also grow hops, lavender, vegetables, herbs and fruits for use in the brewing process and to support the needs of Empire’s brewpub located in Syracuse.”
“The 28,000-square-foot building will be situated on a 22-acre property on Route 13 in Cazenovia,” the website states. “The objective of the Empire Farmstead Brewery is to expand the existing brewing facility and agricultural component of Empire Brewing Company to a stand-alone manufacturing and agritourism facility.”
Showing posts with label New York hops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York hops. Show all posts
Saturday, February 27, 2016
New York State Making a Comeback in Hops
From Empire Farm & Dairy magazine:
By DEBRA J. GROOM
Empire Farm & Dairy
New York state used to be the king of hops.
The small green plant that looks like a pine cone and gives beer its distinct flavor was the top crop in Central New York in the mid-1800s.
Madison County, just east of the Syracuse area, was the first site in the state where hops were grown, when “county resident James Coolidge introduced commercial hop growing to the state by bringing a rootstock from New England,” according to the Madison County Hops Fest website.
By 1828, hops production spread to 11 counties and the state was raising 80 percent of all the hops in the country. But then Prohibition, which began in 1919, and a fungus put an end to the state’s hops kingdom.
However today, thanks to the surge in craft breweries, home brewers and products like hard cider, the growing of hops has made a comeback in New York state.
Today, hops are grown in most counties in New York, said Steve Miller, the state’s hops specialist, who works out of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Madison County.
In fact, the number of acres of hops in the state has expanded considerably in just the last three years.
The 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture, the most recent official statistics available, shows only 19 acres of New York land was in use for growing hops that year. Today, more than 300 acres of land statewide is growing hops, with the number growing by 75 to 100 acres a year.
“We estimate there is a need for 400 to 500 acres of hops in New York to satisfy the domestic demand,” Miller wrote in his hops FAQs, an informational handout sheet he gives to farmers. It’s also available at wdt.me/Hops.
In addition, Miller said the New York Farm Brewery legislation, which went into effect in January 2013, created new opportunities for on-the-farm brewing and sales. He said he gets 10 to 15 calls a week from people who want to begin raising hops and the number of hops farmers with at least one acre has increased from about 3 in 2006 to about 75 in 2015.
“The farms are all over the state, except the Adirondacks and Catskills because of the cold, short season,” Miller said in an email.
Hops farmers in New York are a mixed bag — some grow hops to sell to brewers while some grow hops to make their own beer on the farm.
Chris Hansen, one of the three owners of Climbing Bines Hops Farm and Brewery near Penn Yan in Yates County, said he and friends Brian Karweck and Matt Klehamer started growing hops on the Finger Lakes farm six years ago and opened their own brewery 2½ years ago.
“That was the whole plan from the beginning,” Hansen said. “We knew that by growing our own hops, we could ensure the best ingredients and the quality of the beer.”
For the first couple of years, Climbing Bines did sell hops to others, Hansen said. But once the brewery was up and running, the seven varieties of hops grown on the farm’s 1.5 acres went into the more than 10 different types of beer brewed on site.
Today, Climbing Bines makes 500 to 600 barrels of beer a year — that works out to 15,500 gallons to 18,600 gallons of beer annually. And this year, the farm is expanding from its 1.5 acres of hops to about 3 acres.
The first craft brewery in Oneida County is Woodland Hops Farm and Fermentation in Marcy, just north of Utica. Co-owner A.J. Spado said the company, which just opened this year, is planting an acre of hops this spring and hopes to expand each year up to 6 to 10 acres.
They made and are selling beer this year, but used hops and malt grown by growers from New York and elsewhere.
Bluebell Hopyard in Farmington, Ontario County, grows 2 acres of five varieties of hops to sell to breweries and craft breweries throughout the state. Most of their customers are in the Rochester area, such as VB Brewery in Ontario County and Fairport Brew Co. in Monroe County, while some are in New York City and the Albany area.
They do not operate their own brewery and instead, sell all their hops to other companies.
Co-owner Kurt Charland said the company grows enough hops to “meet the demands of our current customers” and there are no plans for expansion right now. Both he and the other co-owner have full-time jobs (Charland is a civil engineer and his partner runs an animation studio) so the hop farm is a “full-time, part-time job,” Charland said.
Hops specialist Miller said any farmer thinking of putting in hops on his or her land should be sure to do some research first. He said it’s not as easy as just putting hops into the ground, harvesting and raking in the money.
Miller said farmers should study hops and find out if it really is a crop they want to invest in. Several seminars and conferences are held each year for people interested in the subject.
“This is not the same type of farming at all,” Miller said, comparing hops growing to other popular crops, such as sweet corn or vegetables. “We encourage people to get information first.”
Hops farmers are helped by programs held at various colleges, through the Northeast Hops Alliance and through Miller’s office.
At the recent Cornell Hops Conference and Northeast Hops Association annual meeting in December at Morrisville State College, attendees learned about pest control, genetic hop varieties and getting patents when developing a new hops variety.
Guest speaker Kevin Riel of Double ‘R’ Hop Ranches, Inc. in Washington state talked about how to produce hops, focusing on fertilizing, irrigating and training hops for yield and quality. Riel grows about 1,000 acres of hops.
Also, Ron Sirrine, a faculty member at Michigan State University, talked to attendees about what hops growers in Michigan are doing.
There was also a trade show with the conference so hops growers and those considering growing hops could talk to vendors about the equipment and supplies needed to grow hops (Miller said about 350 people attended the hops conference.
Anyone who missed the conference but wants to order DVDs of the speakers can contact Miller at (315) 684-3001, ext. 127 or email sgm6@cornell.edu
Here are some of the differences farmers will see when growing hops:
** Harvesting. The harvesting is completely different from other crops. Hops cannot be hand-harvested — it takes an hour to hand-harvest one plant — so machines must be purchased. The average machine can cost about $30,000.
** Equipment: Once hops are harvested, they must be dried, processed, baled and kept in a walk-in cooler. So to get started, a farmer will need a small tractor, trailer, weed sprayer, crop sprayer similar to what is used in a vineyard or orchard, and then a truck, drying equipment, possible pelleter, a cooler and a building for storage and drying. Some growers look at sharing equipment.
** Planting: The cost of plants and trellises for the plants to grow on can cost $15,000 an acre to start.
** Land: About 10 to 15 acres are needed to get a money-making hops operation off the ground. Some New York farmers have as little as a couple of acres. New York varies from the Pacific Northwest, where farmers grow from 500 acres to several thousand acres of hops.
** Miller said land preparation is important. Land where hops will be grown should be well drained, be flat or have a gentle slope, have access to water for irrigation, and have good air circulation and full sun.
** Cost: “Expenses are variable, but most growers believe they need to have gross sales of more than $6,000 to $8,000 an acre to break even because of initial investment, equipment, harvesting and processing costs. If the hops are poor and your yield is low, you are losing money. The first year you may have some hops, a partial crop the second, and a full crop the third.”
Source: All information and quotes from Steve Miller, New York state hops specialist
By DEBRA J. GROOM
Empire Farm & Dairy
New York state used to be the king of hops.
The small green plant that looks like a pine cone and gives beer its distinct flavor was the top crop in Central New York in the mid-1800s.
Madison County, just east of the Syracuse area, was the first site in the state where hops were grown, when “county resident James Coolidge introduced commercial hop growing to the state by bringing a rootstock from New England,” according to the Madison County Hops Fest website.
By 1828, hops production spread to 11 counties and the state was raising 80 percent of all the hops in the country. But then Prohibition, which began in 1919, and a fungus put an end to the state’s hops kingdom.
However today, thanks to the surge in craft breweries, home brewers and products like hard cider, the growing of hops has made a comeback in New York state.
Today, hops are grown in most counties in New York, said Steve Miller, the state’s hops specialist, who works out of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Madison County.
In fact, the number of acres of hops in the state has expanded considerably in just the last three years.
The 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture, the most recent official statistics available, shows only 19 acres of New York land was in use for growing hops that year. Today, more than 300 acres of land statewide is growing hops, with the number growing by 75 to 100 acres a year.
“We estimate there is a need for 400 to 500 acres of hops in New York to satisfy the domestic demand,” Miller wrote in his hops FAQs, an informational handout sheet he gives to farmers. It’s also available at wdt.me/Hops.
In addition, Miller said the New York Farm Brewery legislation, which went into effect in January 2013, created new opportunities for on-the-farm brewing and sales. He said he gets 10 to 15 calls a week from people who want to begin raising hops and the number of hops farmers with at least one acre has increased from about 3 in 2006 to about 75 in 2015.
“The farms are all over the state, except the Adirondacks and Catskills because of the cold, short season,” Miller said in an email.
Hops farmers in New York are a mixed bag — some grow hops to sell to brewers while some grow hops to make their own beer on the farm.
Chris Hansen, one of the three owners of Climbing Bines Hops Farm and Brewery near Penn Yan in Yates County, said he and friends Brian Karweck and Matt Klehamer started growing hops on the Finger Lakes farm six years ago and opened their own brewery 2½ years ago.
“That was the whole plan from the beginning,” Hansen said. “We knew that by growing our own hops, we could ensure the best ingredients and the quality of the beer.”
For the first couple of years, Climbing Bines did sell hops to others, Hansen said. But once the brewery was up and running, the seven varieties of hops grown on the farm’s 1.5 acres went into the more than 10 different types of beer brewed on site.
Today, Climbing Bines makes 500 to 600 barrels of beer a year — that works out to 15,500 gallons to 18,600 gallons of beer annually. And this year, the farm is expanding from its 1.5 acres of hops to about 3 acres.
The first craft brewery in Oneida County is Woodland Hops Farm and Fermentation in Marcy, just north of Utica. Co-owner A.J. Spado said the company, which just opened this year, is planting an acre of hops this spring and hopes to expand each year up to 6 to 10 acres.
They made and are selling beer this year, but used hops and malt grown by growers from New York and elsewhere.
Bluebell Hopyard in Farmington, Ontario County, grows 2 acres of five varieties of hops to sell to breweries and craft breweries throughout the state. Most of their customers are in the Rochester area, such as VB Brewery in Ontario County and Fairport Brew Co. in Monroe County, while some are in New York City and the Albany area.
They do not operate their own brewery and instead, sell all their hops to other companies.
Co-owner Kurt Charland said the company grows enough hops to “meet the demands of our current customers” and there are no plans for expansion right now. Both he and the other co-owner have full-time jobs (Charland is a civil engineer and his partner runs an animation studio) so the hop farm is a “full-time, part-time job,” Charland said.
Hops specialist Miller said any farmer thinking of putting in hops on his or her land should be sure to do some research first. He said it’s not as easy as just putting hops into the ground, harvesting and raking in the money.
Miller said farmers should study hops and find out if it really is a crop they want to invest in. Several seminars and conferences are held each year for people interested in the subject.
“This is not the same type of farming at all,” Miller said, comparing hops growing to other popular crops, such as sweet corn or vegetables. “We encourage people to get information first.”
Hops farmers are helped by programs held at various colleges, through the Northeast Hops Alliance and through Miller’s office.
At the recent Cornell Hops Conference and Northeast Hops Association annual meeting in December at Morrisville State College, attendees learned about pest control, genetic hop varieties and getting patents when developing a new hops variety.
Guest speaker Kevin Riel of Double ‘R’ Hop Ranches, Inc. in Washington state talked about how to produce hops, focusing on fertilizing, irrigating and training hops for yield and quality. Riel grows about 1,000 acres of hops.
Also, Ron Sirrine, a faculty member at Michigan State University, talked to attendees about what hops growers in Michigan are doing.
There was also a trade show with the conference so hops growers and those considering growing hops could talk to vendors about the equipment and supplies needed to grow hops (Miller said about 350 people attended the hops conference.
Anyone who missed the conference but wants to order DVDs of the speakers can contact Miller at (315) 684-3001, ext. 127 or email sgm6@cornell.edu
Here are some of the differences farmers will see when growing hops:
** Harvesting. The harvesting is completely different from other crops. Hops cannot be hand-harvested — it takes an hour to hand-harvest one plant — so machines must be purchased. The average machine can cost about $30,000.
** Equipment: Once hops are harvested, they must be dried, processed, baled and kept in a walk-in cooler. So to get started, a farmer will need a small tractor, trailer, weed sprayer, crop sprayer similar to what is used in a vineyard or orchard, and then a truck, drying equipment, possible pelleter, a cooler and a building for storage and drying. Some growers look at sharing equipment.
** Planting: The cost of plants and trellises for the plants to grow on can cost $15,000 an acre to start.
** Land: About 10 to 15 acres are needed to get a money-making hops operation off the ground. Some New York farmers have as little as a couple of acres. New York varies from the Pacific Northwest, where farmers grow from 500 acres to several thousand acres of hops.
** Miller said land preparation is important. Land where hops will be grown should be well drained, be flat or have a gentle slope, have access to water for irrigation, and have good air circulation and full sun.
** Cost: “Expenses are variable, but most growers believe they need to have gross sales of more than $6,000 to $8,000 an acre to break even because of initial investment, equipment, harvesting and processing costs. If the hops are poor and your yield is low, you are losing money. The first year you may have some hops, a partial crop the second, and a full crop the third.”
Source: All information and quotes from Steve Miller, New York state hops specialist
Friday, February 19, 2016
NY Beverages Like Hard Cider, Craft Brews, Wines to be Served at Barclays Center in Brooklyn
UPDATE:
The list of brewers and spirits through Taste NY being offered at the Barclays Center has come out and there isn't a single one from Upstate NY. Taste NY says regions will be changing from time to time. Let's hope so.
From Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office:
Taste NY is partnering with Barclays Center, home to the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Islanders, to expand the promotion of New York’s craft beverage producers.
The alliance features the launch of the new and first-ever Taste NY Bar, which is offering a full selection of New York products from across the region and state to Barclays Center’s nearly 2 two million visitors annually.
“New York’s craft beverages are some of the best in the industry – and through this new partnership, we’ll be introducing them to more consumers than ever before,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“The Taste NY Bar at Barclays Center will give visitors the chance to enjoy some of the greatest beer, wine and spirits that this state has to offer. This is about raising the profile of craft beverage producers and stimulating economic growth across the state, and I’m pleased to see this partnership moving forward,” he said.
“We are honored to align with Governor Cuomo to open the inaugural Taste NY Bar,” said Brett Yormark, CEO of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment. “Taste NY is a great complement to our Brooklyn Taste program, Barclays Center’s culinary platform that features 55 popular Brooklyn restaurants and food vendors, and furthers our commitment to sourcing from local producers.”
The Taste NY-Barclays Center agreement is part of the governor’s promise made at the third Wine, Beer, Spirits & Cider Summit to continue to support and provide resources for this growing industry.
The Taste NY Bar is located in a prime location in the venue — on the main concourse, next to the main entrance. To promote the Taste NY Bar, Taste NY branded messaging will be displayed on the more than 700 HDTVs and LED displays in concession areas and throughout the venue, including in the arena bowl and on the Oculus — the 3,000-square-foot LED marquee outside of Barclays Center’s main entrance.
The Taste NY Bar will also be featured on BCTV — a custom in-arena and online video network featuring original content about the arena’s events and the Brooklyn community. BCTV programming appears on the venue’s HDTVs prior to and following events, as well as online at BarclaysCenter.com.
Barclays Center will also become a place for the industry’s producers to engage and connect with enthusiasts and consumers. The partnership provides opportunities for Taste NY producers to host hospitality and networking seminars with distributors.
Barclays Center has redefined the arena customer service and culinary experience. Its more than 2,000 employees are trained by Disney Institute, the business advisory arm of The Walt Disney Company, and its BrooklynTaste™ food program features selections from 55 well-known restaurants and vendors in the borough.
The list of brewers and spirits through Taste NY being offered at the Barclays Center has come out and there isn't a single one from Upstate NY. Taste NY says regions will be changing from time to time. Let's hope so.
From Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office:
Taste NY is partnering with Barclays Center, home to the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Islanders, to expand the promotion of New York’s craft beverage producers.
The alliance features the launch of the new and first-ever Taste NY Bar, which is offering a full selection of New York products from across the region and state to Barclays Center’s nearly 2 two million visitors annually.
“New York’s craft beverages are some of the best in the industry – and through this new partnership, we’ll be introducing them to more consumers than ever before,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“The Taste NY Bar at Barclays Center will give visitors the chance to enjoy some of the greatest beer, wine and spirits that this state has to offer. This is about raising the profile of craft beverage producers and stimulating economic growth across the state, and I’m pleased to see this partnership moving forward,” he said.
“We are honored to align with Governor Cuomo to open the inaugural Taste NY Bar,” said Brett Yormark, CEO of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment. “Taste NY is a great complement to our Brooklyn Taste program, Barclays Center’s culinary platform that features 55 popular Brooklyn restaurants and food vendors, and furthers our commitment to sourcing from local producers.”
The Taste NY-Barclays Center agreement is part of the governor’s promise made at the third Wine, Beer, Spirits & Cider Summit to continue to support and provide resources for this growing industry.
The Taste NY Bar is located in a prime location in the venue — on the main concourse, next to the main entrance. To promote the Taste NY Bar, Taste NY branded messaging will be displayed on the more than 700 HDTVs and LED displays in concession areas and throughout the venue, including in the arena bowl and on the Oculus — the 3,000-square-foot LED marquee outside of Barclays Center’s main entrance.
The Taste NY Bar will also be featured on BCTV — a custom in-arena and online video network featuring original content about the arena’s events and the Brooklyn community. BCTV programming appears on the venue’s HDTVs prior to and following events, as well as online at BarclaysCenter.com.
Barclays Center will also become a place for the industry’s producers to engage and connect with enthusiasts and consumers. The partnership provides opportunities for Taste NY producers to host hospitality and networking seminars with distributors.
Barclays Center has redefined the arena customer service and culinary experience. Its more than 2,000 employees are trained by Disney Institute, the business advisory arm of The Walt Disney Company, and its BrooklynTaste™ food program features selections from 55 well-known restaurants and vendors in the borough.
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