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The exploding popularity of craft beers has spurred interest in growing hops, the pale green flower cones that impart the distinctive bitterness and aromas prized by brewers.

Hops grown here in New Mexico are already sought after by home brewers in and out of state, a few local breweries and even some beer makers in Europe. However, brewers and growers say challenges remain before they can be grown on a large scale in this state.

So far, the main growing operation is at the remote Christ in the Desert Benedictine monastery near Abiquiu. Monks there are expecting their sixth harvest of hops in early September. The hops are a distinctive ingredient in their Monk’s Ales, which are sold through Abbey Brewing to customers around New Mexico, Colorado and Missouri.

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They also sell the crop through a company called Holy Hops.

“They’re very much in demand from home brewers in New Mexico and around the country,” said Holy Hops general manager Berkeley Merchant, a layman who lives in the monastery.

Merchant said they’ve also shipped overseas to craft brewers in Spain, France, Germany and Ireland.

Last year, Victor’s Home Brew in Albuquerque began carrying Holy Hops among the many hop varieties it sells. Store owner Jens Deichmann said he’s sold Holy Hops to local brewers, including Back Alley Draft House, which purchased some for its Ladron’s Peak beer.

Taste and aroma

How much hops you use depends on the style of beer you’re making and the type of hops, said Deichmann. He ventured that 2 to 3 ounces of hops would be typical for a five-gallon batch of pale ale style beer. IPA (India Pale Ale) style beers, which are currently all the rage, have a higher hop content.

Brewers often use several different types of hops to achieve the desired bitterness or aroma in a particular beer and the properties of individual hops vary with each harvest, just like wine grapes, said Deichmann.

Holy Hops sells its crop in 3-ounce quantities in vacuum-packed bags that must be kept in a freezer. The hops are dried whole leaves that require special handling to avoid plugging up equipment in the brewing process.

Large scale hop producers have machinery to compress their product into pellets that look like livestock feed. Most commercial breweries use hops in this form.

“This is the main limitation for all breweries in New Mexico. There is nowhere in New Mexico to get (locally grown hops) pelletized, which is how most of them use them. You have to have a way to use the whole leaf,” said Jeff Erway, president of Albuquerque’s La Cumbre Brewery.

Erway has bought Holy Hops and obtained some from a research project conducted by New Mexico State University near Farmington. He believe his brewery is the only one in the state that has invested in a specialized piece of equipment called a hopback that enables him to brew with whole leaves. He said La Cumbre has mainly used them in its State Fair Cream Ale, which he introduced in 2015 and is brewing again this year.

Cost challenge

The Neomexicanus varieties of hops the monks grow are from stock developed several years ago by Todd Bates, who experimented with breeding wild hops he found growing around Taos. Bates had hopes of farming hops on a commercial scale.

But the startup costs to install the trellis network needed for the climbing vinelike plants – 20 to 30 feet tall – are high. There’s also the problem of harvesting the cone-shaped flowers. Without a machine that costs tens of thousands of dollars, it must be done by hand.

“Picking hops by hand is laborious. To get a quarter pound takes forever, it’s like harvesting air,” Bates said.

Currently, most commercial brewers get hops from long established growing operations in the Pacific Northwest that boast thousands of acres under cultivation. Bates eventually sold most of his stock to Eric Desmarais of CLS Farms in Moxee, Wash., which sells to well-known craft brewers like Sierra Nevada.

The California-based brewery that began producing beers in 1980 used the Medusa strain of Neomexicanus hops in its Sierra Nevada Harvest Wild Hop IPA released to markets nationwide in late 2014.

Bates also sold some of his hop rhizomes or root stock to the monastery and to RNV Enterprises, a Yakima, Wash., company that sells to home brewers.

Santa Fe Brewing Co. owner Brian Lock bought Neomexicanus rhizomes from RNV in 2014 and started a hop growing operation in Rinconada. So far, he’s only had enough for a small batch of lighter beer. Lock hopes to harvest about 50 pounds of hops this year and more as the plants become more mature.

“I’m doing this because I enjoy it and have a passion for the industry, especially if I can get a native hop variety that’s desirable,” Lock said. “But I don’t think I could have it on a commercial basis.”

Merchant echoes Lock’s comments. He said the best yield the monastery has had was about 400 pounds of hops. The monks and guest volunteers do the harvesting by hand.

“We’ve had inquiries from very large breweries but we can’t supply that quantity. It’s very much a labor of love and hand work,” said Merchant.

Farming niche

NMSU researchers are hoping to develop a farming niche that could some day be a commercially viable source of hops for local brewers.

Kevin Lombard, associate professor of horticulture and superintendent of the NMSU agricultural science center in Farmington ï»¿is growing several varieties of Neomexicanus hops in the northwest corner of the state.

“We’re basically trying to facilitate a new industry in the state,” said Lombard.

The hops they’ve grown show potential for good yields and “interesting” qualities for brewers, Lombard said, but having to hand harvest would cut into the bottom line for any farmer. He still hopes to buy a harvesting machine and establish a cooperative style arrangement for hop growers to use it.

Lombard received grant funding two years ago through the state and federal agricultural departments to buy a German-made hop harvesting machine but demand for the equipment is intense and state purchasing contract requirements have so far complicated attempts to secure one of the few available machines.

“Until then, hop growing will be small scale and artisanal. Growers won’t have enough product for large scale breweries,” Lombard said.