Did you know you can source hops locally? Using locally grown hops to brew your beer means that you can enjoy the freshest hops available without the energy waste of transporting them across the country.
Blue Ridge Hops is a small family farm, located in Marshall, North Carolina, where spectacular long-range views surround the hops yard. Owners John Wright and Rita Pelczar have been growing USDA Certified Organic hops since 2009.
Most large hops growers harvest their crop all at once, often with machines, but at Blue Ridge Hops, cones are harvested by hand, over several weeks and selected at peak maturity, leaving younger cones to continue to develop. While this process is labor intensive, it maximizes production of quality cones.
Blue Ridge Hops sells the bulk of their harvest fresh to area microbreweries for special seasonal brews — this requires coordinating the harvest with the brew masters’ schedules and delivering within hours of harvest. Hops that are not sold fresh are dried on site, the same day they are harvested. Dried cones are vacuum-sealed and frozen for sale year-round to home brewers.
Taste the difference mountain-grown, organically cultivated, hand-harvested hops can make to your beer. For more information, visit blueridgehops.com.
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