Canada, BC: Craft beer industry boom drives B.C.’s hop-growing revival

Harvest time is here in British Columbia for a revitalized local growth industry, The Province reported on September 7.

September 1 marks the first day of the B.C. Hop Company’s three-week harvest, which will be aided by a brand-new arrival from Germany: a Wolf WHE 513 hop-harvesting machine.

“The machine, housed in a barn on a family farm in Abbotsford, is the first new Wolf harvester owned by a Canadian producer, and represents a cost of about C$500,000,” said Diane Stewart, co-owner of the B.C. Hop Company.

“We’re all in,” Stewart said about the investment. “We’re serious.”

The shiny metal behemoth is a symbol, Stewart said, of the continued revival of B.C. hop-growing.

Hops, a principal ingredient in beer, were historically a major local agri-business in B.C., but the local industry completely fizzled out in the 1990s.

Hop farming in B.C. dates back to the 1860s and peaked in the 1940s, when the province’s 2,000 acres of cultivation represented the largest hop-growing region in the British Commonwealth. But the industry completely dried up over the second half of the 20th century amid market consolidation led by major brewing conglomerates.

In the last decade, though, hops have once again become a feasible cash crop in B.C., with demand driven by the province’s craft beer boom.

“When the last of the original B.C. hop farms closed down in 1997, there were fewer than 25 brewers and brew pubs in B.C.,” said Ken Beattie, executive director of the B.C. Craft Brewers Guild. “Now, that number has skyrocketed to more than 110.”

The growth of craft beer in B.C. has been “explosive and unprecedented,” Beattie said, adding: “The exciting part is that it’s in close to 50 communities in B.C.”

“B.C.’s craft brewing industry employs 2,500 people,” he said, “with an additional 1,500 working in brew pubs owned by craft brewers.”

Demand for the crop is further driven by the fact that the full-flavoured, hoppy varieties currently in vogue in North America, such as India Pale Ales, require far more hops per litre to produce than the paler, mass-produced lagers from the giant corporations that for decades dominated the beer market.

According to a 2014 market report from the German Hop Industry Association, the U.S. craft beer segment accounts for only one per cent of world beer production, but it requires more than 10 per cent of the world hop crop, a fact the report calls “astonishing.”

The rise of local hop production has also made it easier for local brewers to create wet-hop beer, limited-edition small-batch beers brewed with fresh hops, as opposed to the more commonly used dried or pelletized hops.

These beers have a particularly fresh hop aroma and flavour, and have exploded in popularity in recent years.

“It’s the Beaujolais nouveau of beer. It’s so seasonal and unique,” said Donna Dixson, producer of the B.C.’s Hop Fest, a celebration of wet-hopped beers taking place on the Stewart family farm on October 3.

Darius Koziel, a dealer of Wolf equipment in Europe, said craft beer enthusiasts are more likely to consume locally grown ingredients, and to support local farmers.

“They’re not just selling the beer. They’re selling also the story of the beer production,” Koziel, reached in Lublin, the main hop-growing region of Poland, said on September 7.

“The explosion of craft beer’s popularity started in the U.S. and spread to Canada, and is, more recently, emerging in Europe,” Koziel said.

“That’s something we should learn here in Europe, from the North American customers. The craft beer market is growing so fast in Canada and all of North America,” he said. “They don’t want any more low-quality beers.”

09 September, 2015