One of my employees started growing hops on his upstate far this year. He's got approx. 4 pounds of Chinook & 4 pounds of Cascade (dried) with other varieties harvesting soon. Any idea where he should start reaching out to local/regional brewers? Not sure if this is something that local brewers would even be interested in since we're talking about such a small scale. He is, however, hoping to increase his yield by 5-10 fold next year.
Any local brewery would certainly be interested. Just call and ask. I bet it takes no more than three phone calls to get rid of them all.
I'm guessing he'd need to send them out to be tested first. Breweries wouldn't buy them without knowing things like the exact alpha and beta acids in the hops. Even then it's likely a stretch that they'd buy them from an unknown source, but it can't hurt to reach out.
^Agreed. Also, since these are about homebrew level quantities maybe he should contact the LHBS and see if they will get rid of them or put them to use for you!
I bet a small enough brewery would use them as a dry hop in a cask or small batch for fun. Not sure how many people would want to pay, but they could probably trade some beer for them and at least it would develop a relationship for when your friend grows a lot more.
May not be a worthwhile effort.... Rare/awesome hops are worth about $10-15/lb dried weight to a brewery. Those come with lab analysis. I think he will have a hard time selling to anything but the smallest of the small nano. I would reach out to homebrew clubs instead.
Check with local breweries and brewpubs. Those could be used for dry hopping a batch, or dry hopping many casks if the brewery does real ale.
I went on a tour at Founders this past Saturday and our guide literally said "If you grow hops at home, do not bring 5 lbs to us hoping we'll use them in a beer. As much as we'd love to, we can't." He mentioned they need hops to grow for 3 years before they can use them, and I'm sure that 3 years is spent under some Founders' supervision.
I know Kane Brewing uses some hops from a small local hop farmer (Oast House) to dry hop a couple of their batches each year. It can never hurt to ask, especially a small local brewery.
