The Art of the Hops Harvest: How Sun King & Three Floyds Inspired Indiana Hops Farm To Meet A Growing Demand

By Adam Schick of Indiana On Tap

As Kenan Rainwater and Sarah Kinney fill with music the Brown County valley that Waltz Valley Farm calls home on the evening of September 6th, Sue Brooks, co-owner of the farm along with her husband Mike Brooks, Michael and Susan Waltz, and Julie Smith, tells me of how this scene came to be.

“We were watching a segment on Inside Indiana Business about the owners of Sun King Brewing and 3 Floyds Brewing Co. purchasing their hops from local farms,” Sue tells me, “and I turned to Mike and asked, ‘Why aren’t we doing that?’”

She waves her hand over to a nearby field, sharing her epiphany with me, and asks, “Why weren’t we growing hops?”

A few months after seeing that IIB report, Waltz Valley opened its gates to friends and family for their first ever Hops Harvest, welcoming their guests to come in, cut and pick their first harvest of hops, and share good food, music, and beer in the rolling hills of southeastern Indiana.

The craft beer industry continues to grow with new breweries opening up seemingly every week, and with that boom comes an ever-growing increase in demand for the little bitter, tangy flowers of the hop plant. Indiana farmers are beginning to take notice of this demand, with farmers in Thorntown and Knightstown adding the plants to their crops, as well as Purdue University offering webinars to interested growers along with tours of their own hop farms located at Meigs Farm, a part of the Throckmartin Purdue Agricultural Center located a few miles south of Lafayette. Waltz Valley Farm can now count itself among that list of growing Hoosier hop farmers.

Growing hops in Indiana is not without its challenges. Hop plants tend to fare better the temperate climates of the Pacific Northwest, so Indiana farmers like the Waltz Valley team are working diligently to help their hop plants and fields adjust to growing the plant in Indiana’s often hot and humid summers. Along with making sure the land and soil is just right (Sue estimated that their current field was last used 15 years ago to house horses), farmers also must invest in the building of tresses for the plants to grow on. So with the framework in place and their first round of plants in the ground in late May – early June, Waltz Valley would just need to wait and see how their efforts paid off.

I don’t think anyone, especially Mike and Sue Brooks, was disappointed with their haul.

While Mike estimates that the farm has enough space for approximately 2,100 plants, Waltz Valley limited their first harvest to just 100 plants, focusing on creating a higher quality hop with their first run while ensuring they got the process right. After the cutting from the tresses and picking them clean (and dropping a few fresh hops in our beers, courtesy of Nashville’s Quaff On!), those 100 plants yielded 17 pounds of cascade hops. Soon after picking the plants, the fresh hops were packed into a truck and taken to Quaff On! to be wrapped in cheesecloth and dropped in to their new Aquaffalypse IPA, which will be unveiled at their upcoming Quafftoberfest.

Even though it was just their first harvest, Waltz Valley is already feeling the pressure of demand, with several other local breweries looking for one last batch of hops as the growing season draws to an end. With their first batch already committed to Quaff On! months before, Waltz Valley has had to turn interested brewers away. 

“I told them I was thankful for their interest,” Mike says, “but they were out of luck and can try again next year.” 

With the success of their first harvest of hops and eyes turned towards expansion, Waltz Valley Farms is doing just that, waiting in anticipation of and making plans for 2015’s harvest. But, for now, they can take pride in knowing they’ve become a part of a new homegrown venture helping to create new and bolster already-existing Indiana businesses. 

Look for their hops in Quaff On!’s new Aquaffalypse IPA debuting at Quafftoberfest, a craft beer and music festival at the Bill Monroe Music Park & Campground in Bean Blossom, IN held September 19-20, 2014.