The 2011 hop harvest will soon be underway at Harvest Hop, the enterprise of Mike Driscoll.
“The rough weather this spring reduced this year’s crop a bit, but I’m pleased with the quality of the hops,” he said
Grown on rented land at Ignatius Farm, handpicked, organic Bertwell and Tettnang hops are destined for Harvest Ale and Harvest Lager made by F&M Brewery for the Woolwich Arrow and Borealis pubs, and, new for this year, and Mill Street Brewery will be adding those organic hops to its beers.
Harvest Hop has supplied hops to Niagara College’s teaching Brewery in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Bertwell may be the first truly Ontario hop. Plants found by Ian Hanna near Picton in 2004 were propagated to determine their ability to produce brewing quality hops. They are named for Bert Grant, a craft brewer. Lab testing and test brews strengthened a belief the plants were hardy survivors from Prince Edward County’s Barley Days, a turn of the 19th century period when Upper Canada was a barley and hop growing stronghold of the British Empire. Barley production migrated to the prairies as their soils were exploited. Hop production gradually declined as plantation style farms opened up in the U.S. Pacific northwest and BC.
Harvest Hop also planted five acres of malting barley this year, hoping to make local malt, as well as hops, available to craft brewers.
