The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Foothill Hops revels in local agriculture
Foothill Hops Farm Brewery: Local hop growers expanding Munnsville operation
MUNNSVILLE » Kate Fisher recalled she didn’t have much luck on her first attempt to grow hops some two decades ago. She had a single plant, figuring she would try her luck at it, and failed utterly as that hop plant was soon dead.
She didn’t give up, then buying 100plants and figuring she could get at least one of them to maturity. With a lot of garden work, hours and hours of studying, and maybe a little luck, she and her husband Larry Fisher have grown their hop production significantly since then. Now, they have created their own Foothill Hops Farm Brewery, with a just-opened tasting room to welcome the public to come out for a sample right there on the premises.
Homegrown hops are in every drop of their product, they promise, as well as at least 90 percent New York state ingredients, most sourced from right there in Madison County.
Kate said hops growing was a big business throughout Madison County back in the mid-1800s. But she said that business was scuttled by a few different obstacles, including a fungus blight that killed many of the plants. Hop growers also were moving west and finding better hop production conditions there. Prohibition also helped make hop growing unprofitable, as it criminalized sales of the main product that was made from hops.
But for some time now, the Fishers have wondered if the commercial production of hops and beer in this area might one day rival the economic presence of grapes and wine in the Finger Lakes Region. With nearly 20 years of hops growing now mastered on their Munnsville farm, and the opening of their own Farm Brewery tasting room on Nov. 2, they are well on their way to make that a reality.
Kate said they were inspired by a visit to the Madison County Hop Fest in Oneida. In 2000, they joined a group of others who were interested in bringing hops growing back to the area -- a source of commerce that had been quite substantial and widespread at one time. She points out an old 1875 map of the Munnsville area nowon display at the tasting room, showing nearly every single property as having a hops-growing operation.
Their own first hops crop was planted in spring of 2001. The hops yard soon expanded, and the Fishers were busy developing harvesting, drying and processing systems of their own. With their input, the hops and farm brewing industries expanded through governmental grants and new legislation.
Their tap room featuring a variety of