As a kid, I spent a lot of time in the small town of St-Bernardin where a few of my friends lived. In 2013, I found myself back in the town doing a story on one of the first hops growers to sprout up (pun intended) in Eastern Ontario. It was my first trip to a hops field and definitely an interesting experience. Here is a piece that I pulled from my personal vault of articles.

Daniel Sabourin, at Nation Hops, began growing hops on his property in St-Bernardin in 2010. He started with one row of vines, 120 plants and seven varieties of hops: Cascade, Hallertauer, Mount Hood, Nugget, Perle, Willamette and Zeus. Now, he has seen his 3.5-acre field grow to four rows and 680 plants.

Sabourin got into hops when the dairy farm he was working for was sold. He knew he needed a plan. “I looked for agriculture options and found hops. I found some information and the Ontario Hop Growers Association and began emailing them. Before long I had established my roots system.”

With his entry into hops, Sabourin acknowledged that there aren’t many producers in the area. “There aren’t a lot in the region, maybe nine, and everyone is just starting out,” said Sabourin. “It takes about three years for the plants to fully mature and produce so you need to be patient.”

When the plants do start growing, Sabourin notes they can spring up quite quickly. “In the right conditions a vines can grow 1.5 feet in a day.”

Now, Sabourin is looking to help increase the number of hops producers. This year he accepted a role with the Ontario Hop Growers Association as director and is working on speeding up the process of harvesting. He built a custom harvester, which saves hours, and is hoping to build more. “You just cut the top and bottom of the plant and feed it through the machine and it separates the hops from the vines.”

Other than the harvester, another project that Sabourin is working on is a co-op to release an all Ontario beer with Tribal Hops in Iroquois and Heritage Hill Organics in Barrie. “We are pooling all our hops and will release an ale and pilsner that will be sold in the LCBO. We even have the original Mill Street brewer on board to craft the beers.”

While the majority of Sabourin’s hops went to the all-Ontario beer, the rest went to a familiar source. The 3 Brewers from Montreal (Les Trois Brasseurs) tried his hops and bought the whole harvest last year and bought half again this year.

Sabourin has been lucky but he does admit that one of the major challenges is selling the hops since there are so many varieties, it comes down to the brewers’ preference.

He is optimistic that the industry will thrive in the future. What he would like to see is the industry run similar to the dairy industry where hops are pooled together in one location with set pricing and a joint effort at marketing.

Update

100 Mile Ale and Lager were produce in the spring of 2014 and sold in the LCBO. Sabourin, unfortunately had a health scare, and is no longer in the hops business. However, his impact on hops in Eastern Ontario can be seen today. The Ontario Hop Growers Association now lists 25 hop growers in Eastern Ontario. To read the full original story visit Eastern Ontario Agrinews.

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