USA, NY: Homer Hops Brewing in development at family-owned hop farm in Cortland County

A three-year-old, family-owned hop farm may soon be home to a new family-and-friends-owned brewery and tasting room, Syracuse.com reported on January 23.

Homer Hops Brewing is in development on the site of the Homer Hops farm at 722 State Route 90, just west of the village of Homer in Cortland County. Work is underway, but the actual opening could be delayed by the ongoing shutdown of the federal government.

For now, Jason Kristof and his family are aiming for opening by the spring of 2020. The project was recently cleared by the Homer town board, which had to change some zoning laws to allow for a brewery, winery, distillery or cidery. The brewery is awaiting its state license, which should come within the month. Homer Hops applied for its federal license in November. There is likely to be a backlog in the processing of federal licenses when the shutdown ends.

“Otherwise, we’re ready to rock and roll,” Jason Kristof said.

Homer Hops farm is operated by Jason Kristof and his siblings Tony, Wally and Tessa. They grow Cascade, Centennial, Willamette and Nuggett hops -- all workhorse varieties for American-style beers -- on a 15-acre farm. They plans to add more varieties in the future.

The approximately 50- by 80-foot brewery and tasting room will be run by Jason and his wife, Dina; Tony and his wife, Katie; Wally; and their friends Shawn and Beth Potts and Steve Romer.

Jason Kristof and Shawn Potts got the ball rolling as homebrewers, and then others in the group joined in.

“It’s really snowballed,” Jason Kristof said. “We’ve now got about 15 recipes we’ve developed that we can go with in the brewery.”

The beers will include stouts and porters, which Jason is fond of, plus many varieties of IPA, including some hazy New England styles. The brewhouse will likely be a 3- to 7-barrel system, a standard size for start-up breweries. (A barrel is 31 gallons).

The tasting room will probably not serve its own food, Kristof said, but does plan to invite food trucks to stop by.

Homer Hops is just down Route 90 from another craft brewery, Summerhill Brewing, at 384 Champlin Road, just over the Cayuga County line. It also started with a hop farm -- the brewery opened in the fall of 2016.

Homer Hops Brewing is one of several new breweries expected to open within the next few months to a year in Central New York. Others include:

-- Garrett’s Brewing Co., which expects to open Jan. 31 at 1 Main St. in Trumansburg, just outside Ithaca.. It’s in the former home of the Rongovian Embassy club.

-- Talking Cursive Brewing, which hopes to open next month at 301 Erie Blvd West, across from the National Grid (Niagara Mohawk) building in downtown Syracuse.

-- ONCO Fermentations, which could open later this winter or early spring at 397 Route 281 in Tully, in southern Onondaga County.

-- Freight Yard Brewing, which hopes to open later this year at 4975 State Route 31 in Clay.

24 January, 2019