NE Hop Alliance gathering in Troy

Tending hop vines.

 TROY, NY -- Things will be hopping at Brown’s Brewing Company this Saturday. That is when members of the Northeast Hop Alliance (NeHA) will gather for their annual meeting and fall conference in Revolution Hall.

The conference, which will begin with a "Hoppy Hour," is for current and prospective hop growers. It  will focus on re-establishing commercial specialty hops production in New York State and other parts of the Northeast. according to Gregg Stacy, Brown's director of marketing and sales.

Topics will include planting, growing and harvesting as well as financial and scientific resources to support growers and local craft brewers like Brown’s who grow some of their own hops.

NeHA’s overall mission is to enhance the cultural heritage of hop production through education, agritourism, and architectural preservation.

Speakers include hop researchers from the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Oregon State University, the University of Vermont Extension, and Cornell Co-op Extension as well as hop growers and craft brewers interested in expanding the use of locally-grown hops.

Western New York was the largest hop producing region in the world until the early 1900s when a mold and aphid blight destroyed the crop and hop growing. Growing in the U.S. moved to the Pacific Northwest thereafter. NeHA is dedicated to the rebirth of this profitable agricultural segment that thrived in this area for nearly 150 years.

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