Hop Farming

Eric and Claire Desmarais, fourth and fifth generation hop farmers, and Alex Nowell, former director of brewing for Three Weavers and an advisor to CLS, dig into the recent evolution of hop farming, current harvest challenges, and tools that brewers can use to select better hops.

Despite historic levels of hop inventory, growers planted 5 percent more hops in 2020 than in the previous year, as locations and varieties continued to shift.

Hop growers are aware of trends, making their best educated guesses on future demand. From 2018 to 2019, here's a look at which varieties gained the most acres, and which varieties lost.