New Belgium Brewing has awarded a $20,000 grant to a Colorado State graduate student to further her research on growing organic hops in Colorado.
Odell Brewing — located in Fort Collins like New Belgium and CSU — has been supporting Ali Hamm’s work for several years.
Hamm’s plan is to figure out what kinds of hops grow best under organic conditions in Colorado. “Nobody thinks about growing hops in Colorado – well, not until this year,” Hamm said.
New Belgium currently uses organic hops from New Zealand in its organic Mothership Wit, and obviously would like to be able to use some that aren’t shipped half way around the world.
Anybody want to give a grant to a couple of Organic Hop farmers growing/developing NANA (Noble Aromatic Native American) Hops and trialing Euro hops? NM brewers for NM growers??? We need a few materials for a small solar drying shed and picking labor this year.
CSU and $20K.? I guess were just small potatoes or work too cheap….
……but, we’re making it real. Now.
organichops@rof.net can provide info on drying and a cheap picker for the small farmer Glen Rising Sun Farms Paonia Co