One of the best tings about living in Richmond, Va is all the community events that get created and we get to enjoy with everyone throughout the City. One of the best means for brewery-going Craft beer fans to participate with a brewery is the Hardywood Community Hopping Project.
This project originated in 2012 out of Hardywood Park Craft Brewery's desire to engage the beer community and bring people together through the brewing of the now famed RVA/IPA. Hardywood has provided three or four rhizomes over the last two years to each participant to plant at home. This can be done directly in the garden or as most City goers prefer, planting them in pots.
Its pretty exciting to grow your first hop plant. Even though there really cannot be that high of an expectation in terms of yield from some of the rhizomes given the rootstocks age, many new growers have seen their hops climb to sixteen or more feet. Some the first year have the bines climb very high but yield on a few cones-- this is in large part due to placement and the number/hours of full sun the plant experienced during the vegetation compared to the flowering stage. Many folks place these pots on their decks or along the sides of their homes, which may not get the direct sun the hops really require. Nonetheless, the yields have been pretty great to see.
Harvests in 2012 and 2013 could not be any more different. Heavy rains in late summer in 2013 pushed harvest back a few weeks and even then some of the hops were under developed. In 2012, we harvested twice; once in late July (all the Nugget we picked we provided to Hardywood which was about thirty pounds or so) and then again in August with more Nugget, Cascade and Willamette. In 2013, after an extra year of growing and working harder with new varieties we included Nugget, Galena, Sterling and Willamette. We did not include Cascade in large part because other growers like Stan Driver and Dave Whipple who also have been working with Hardywood to provide local hops for the project had committed this variety. Stan Driver is pictured on the right in the header picture we have at the top of the page and is the hop grower for Blue Mountain Brewery in Nelson County, Va. Both Stan and Dave do a fabulous job with their hop programs and we look forward to continue to work with them in the any effort involving moving Virginia Hops forward.
Harvest Day in 2013 was in mid-August and during Harvest Day everyone in the project brings their harvest hops to the brewery either in full bine form or as picked cones. This year yielded a wonderful bounty even given the hard growing condition in many parts of the region. Growers get to have their names etched on the RVA/IPA label and the participating farms also get the opportunity to have their logos on the back of the label.
In September, after the RVA/IPA beer is made and is about to be released to the public, Hardywood traditionally invites all those growers in the project to a special release party the night before and each grower gets their own bottle from Hardywood and a group photo is taken. I encourage everyone growing hops or any one needing a reason to grow hops to participate in this Project. If you were unable to get your rhizomes, do not worry. I will be sure to get you rhizomes!
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