Anyone who is interested in getting in on the Summit Land Conservancy’s hops harvest should register now because the picking and sorting will happen sometime in the next few weeks.
The Summit Land Conservancy held their final summer hops hike on Sunday. They’ve been watching the crop closely and the day to pick is coming up. Hops grow wild around town and volunteers will be needed to help with the harvest. Executive Director, Cheryl Fox says harvesting hops is tricky with weather changing and the ripening process.
“They found that the cones were growing, and the plants look healthy. So we are looking forward to a good harvest. So what happens now, is we wait until the brewer at Wasatch Brewing says now is the time. And so, they generally go out and they look at the hops and they look at the way they are developing because there really is a time when the pollen is right, and hops are properly ripened. We kind of have to wait until the last minute. And one year we waited a little too long and everything froze and that was the year we had the No Hops Clothing Hoptional."
The hops harvest typically occurs on a weekday. Fox says volunteers will receive an email a day or so before. They’ll meet early in the morning at the Wasatch Brew Pub and venture out to pick the hops that grow in the hills around town.
"Which means you go up with gloves and we cut these big long-they’re not vines-they’re bines with a B. And then we bring all those back down to the Wasatch Brew Pub and we sit out in the back in Swede Alley. And it’s kind of a long process because you have to pull the cones off of the bines. Really it is a hand- crafted beer.
Fox says the resulting brew, called Clothing Hoptional will be available later this fall.
“And, then when we get these big vats full of cones, they go right into the brew, and they make the beer right there. That’s why it has to be a weekday so that it can be brewed by the brewers. And, that will be available at the Wasatch Brew Pub on tap usually by the end of September or early October. And then we will also host, sponsored by Wasatch Brew Pub, a Hoppy Hour, where people can come and taste the beer. It’s actually very good. It’s always a little bit different.”
Fox says most of the hops grow naturally but they’ve used extra hops from other sources when the harvest needs a little boost.
“Sometimes taken hops from other places where they have planted them. Bill White Farms has a bunch of hops out along the fence line out there. So we’ve taken those. Sometimes people will bring them from yards and gardens and places where they have them. So last year an organic farm down in Salt Lake brought a whole bunch up to help.”
The best way to participate is to go to the Summit Land Conservancy website at https://www.wesaveland.org/hops-hunters
