Black Locust Hops Farm Brewery

Black Locust Hops was born in the spring of 2006 when getting hops became difficult (for that story, you’ll have to check out one of our tours!). We planted forty hop rhizomes in a single row, supported by Black Locust poles, with the simple goal of growing our own ingredients for our homebrews. We used to chop our bines down w/a machete, lay them out on tables, and have hand-pick parties with a bunch of our very long-suffering friends. In 2007, we sold a 20 gallon bin of our hand-picked whole hop cones for what would be the first farm to bottle beer in the region “The Black Locust Venom Ale” by DuClaw Brewing Company! As more breweries contacted us, asking for local ingredients, with the help of our friends and family, we planted more hops, expanding to meet the steady demand. We quickly realized we were going to run out of friends, if we were like, “Hey, everyone, let’s hand-pick 4000 plants; it’ll be fun!”