Ordering Hops Rhizomes

SOLD OUT FOR 2009 (March 20, 2009).

Hops Rhizomes will be shipped April-May. No new orders, please.

For detailed variety information, from storageability to alpha potential to maturity (early or late season) please consult the Hopunion Variety Book.

Downloads:

• Hops Market Update, fall 2007
• Small-Scale & Organic Hops Manual

Crannóg Ales at Left Fields farm

Crannóg Ales is Canada's only certified organic farmhouse microbrewery!

Left Fields is a ten-acre PACS (Pacific Agricultural Certification Society) certified organic farm. It is a diversified farm, with a market garden, livestock, a hopyard, and a small orchard. It is also home to Crannóg Ales and Stellar Seeds.

We grow everything from apples to lettuce to pigs and chickens. We try to grow heritage and unusual varieties both in our garden and with our livestock, to ensure that valuable and interesting breeds are maintained.

Our water comes from our own well, spring-fed from the farm itself. We grow our own hops, and use all of our spent grains on our own farm, to feed our animals or for compost.

Our Hops

Left Fields also grows hops for Crannóg Ales. Our hopyard was planted in 2000, and began full production in the fall of 2002.

We grow 7+ varieties of hops, in two yards totalling just over 1 acre. The hopyards are fully certified organic, and are the basis for ongoing research into organic hop production on a small scale for our bioregion.

Our hops are processed on-farm, in a dryer of our own design.

All hop rhizomes for Left Fields originally came from Freshops, which supplies organic hops, hop rhizomes, cultivation information, and non-organic hops to homebrewers and the craft beer industry. We now propagate our own rhizomes for commercial sales.

We are currently growing Golding, Fuggles, Nuggett, Willamette, Mt. Hood, Challenger and Cascade hops, with a few plants each of other varieties. This lineup changes as we learn which hops do best under organic cultivation, and which work best for our brewery.

Interested in buying hops rhizomes?
SOLD OUT FOR 2009 (March 20, 2009).

Hops Rhizomes will be shipped April-May. No new orders, please.

Potential Hops Growers: Market Update

For more information on the market and costs of production, please read our Update. This update includes background on the situation as of December 2007, as well as basic trellising costs. For more detailed production information, please refer to our Manual. Left Fields is pleased to provide organic hops rhizomes to commercial growers.

For those new to hops: please have a good look at the global situation, and give serious consideration to being certified organic and working with others to invest in a good hops picker. Beyond the capital costs, the best return in the industry will come from certified organic hops, as world demand continues to grow and cannot be met by conventional producers. Talk to your local breweries to ensure that they are willing to work with you to improve quality and to buy hops from you.

We feel we must provide these words of warning, because hop acreage increased approximately 25% in 2008 in the USA in response to the shortage. We are already seeing some supply exceed demand and prices dropping. Again, the best insurance is to work directly with your buyer (the brewer) and to be certified organic, and to spread your capital costs for picking and packing machinery around a larger group of producers.

Here is a link to a web page that breaks down the cost of establishing one acre under drip irrigation in 2004. Keep in mind that this study does not include cost of harvest, drying and baling. Hops are not a crop that can economically be harvested by hand. All of the remaining approximately 60 growers in the USA are heavily invested in mechanization. I suggest that you visit Oregon or Washington during harvest (Aug.20- Sept. 20) to see how the big growers work.

On the good news front: those who have already established relations with brewers are seeing immediate returns. Brewers are excited about being able to buy local (and advertise it!), and first year crop returns for growers were much higher than anticipated.

There is a lot of material available on-line apart from our manual: check out Hopunion, Freshops, the University of Vermont, the Hop Growers of America, the Oregon Hops Commission for starters. There are also print references in our Manual. If you have more questions about varieties we list, please go to the following: Hopunion's variety Data Book and the variety information from the USDA Hops Research Station at Corvallis, OR.

There is a lot of material available on-line apart from our manual: check out Hopunion, Freshops, the University of Vermont,  the Hop Growers of America, the Oregon Hops Commission for starters. There are also print references in our manual. If you have more questions about varieties we list, please go to the following: Hopunion's variety Data Book and the variety information from the USDA Hops Research Station at Corvallis, OR.

Hops Project

With the assistance of BC Investment Agriculture, we have created a hops growing manual for small-scale and organic producers. This is a basic manual, including extensive cultivation information as well as tips on how to build and design hops trellising, home dryers, and packaging for market. Please see the table of contents below for a guide to what's in the manual. Hardcopy of the manual can be purchased from us for $12 plus $2.50 S&H. (Please see our address on the Contact Us page. Payment is cheque or money order only.) You can also download the manual in PDF format here. This requires Acrobat Reader 4, a free program which is readily available. The manual can also be found through the COABC website.

What's in the Small-Scale Organic Hops Manual:

Download the manual
Hardcopy $12 plus $2.50 S&H. Please contact us for ordering information. Free shipping for manual only with rhizome purchase.