Brewing something special
Niagara unveils new hop yard at teaching brewery
Niagara College Brewmaster and Horticulture students had a special treat for their first week of school when they were able to witness the first hop harvest of the college’s new hop yard.
The two-acre hop yard lies behind the Teaching Brewery at the Niagara-on-the-Lake campus.
“This is the first major harvest we have done from the hop yard,” said Kelly Byer, Research Lab Technologist for the Canadian Food and Wine Institute and Innovation Centre.
“It is interesting because we have 12 different varieties of hops growing so it gives us a good opportunity to assess how the different varieties do in the Niagara area.” Local farmer Roger Vail of Vailmont Vineyards was generous in donating his hop harvester for use on the Niagara College yard, speeding up the harvesting process.
“We are one of the first ones in the area with a hop harvester and we are helping out Niagara College for the brew students being able to get their hops off,” jokes Vail.
Vail points out that having so many varieties in one yard will be a challenge but that they’ll make sure it happens.
The orange machine churned away, spitting out the leaves and ropes on one side and freshly picked hops on the other.
“It takes the vines that were cut down, thrashes the cones off and separates the leaves,” explains Vail.
“We’ll take the cones to Oast which has a drying system and we’ll dry those cones down to a eight or 10 moisture content getting ready to bail them or grind them into a pellet.” The hop yard is an experiment for the college, which hopes to share their findings with other brewmasters and the industry.
“We are doing a project with Roger Vail of Vailmont Vineyards with the Research and Innovation department of Niagara College to look at the development of alpha and beta acids and the moisture content of the hops over time,” explains Byer.
“This is information that brewers need to know depending on what style of beer that they are brewing and growers need to know this information so they can target to optimal harvest time for their hops.” Byer is extremely appreciative of the help that Vail has given.
“Roger has been a great partner to work with because he has allowed Niagara College to retain the intellectual property so we can share this information with growers across the province and benefit the sector as a whole,” said Byer.