While Michigan's Great Southwest has long been well known for acres of wine grape vineyards, a relatively new phenomenon greets agri-tourists roaming the Berrien County countryside and the visuals are striking. The growing proliferation of new hops fields and farms in the region are living testimony to the sky-rocketing interest in the craft brewing industry.
Late August and early September, before the grape harvest gets underway, mark the peak of the hop harvest season. Of the four main ingredients in craft beer, none of them boast the rabid following of humulus lupulus — or hops. West Michigan Beer Tours, in collaboration with Hop Head Farms, headquartered in Hickory Corners outside of Kalamazoo…but with sprawling new farms and operations in and around Baroda…will tee up the second of two unique tours with a Hop Harvest Beer Tour this Saturday near Kalamazoo. The first was staged out of Grand Rapids last week.
The tour this Saturday will escort groups to Hop Head Farms operations on a 30-acre plot at Hickory Corners outside of Kalamazoo. The crew at Hop Head Farms provides hops for breweries all over the nation, as well as internationally. Several Michigan breweries are providing samples of their beers using hops from Hop Head Farms to be tasted as part of the unique tour of the hop fields and processing equipment.
Hop Head Farms co-founder Bonnie Steinman says, "What we work for all year comes down to these few short weeks. Very few people who aren't in the brewing industry get to see and smell the action of harvest. There is nothing like it. Jeff and the crew really have the whole process down to an art. I love to get to share a piece of this special, and crazy, time with the groups from West Michigan Beer Tours, and highlight how Michigan hops are being used by brewers today."
After the farm visit, the bus will visit breweries that work close with Hop Head Farms including Territorial Brewing Company and Tibbs Brewing Company. Tickets for the tour start at $75 each which includes samples or a pint at each location. For additional information click the link below.
http://www.westmichiganbeertours.com/tour
The itinerary for the tour looks like this:
- Origination: Shakespeare's Pub — Noon until 1pm
- Stop 1 — Hop Head Farms, samples and tour — 1:30pm to 3pm
- Stop 2 — Territorial Brewing, meet & greet, samples — 3:30pm to 4:30pm
- Stop 3 — Tibbs Brewing, tour, samples or pint — 5pm to 6pm
- Termination: Shakespeare's Pub — 6:15pm
While this tour does not include the rapidly expanding properties of Hop Head Farms in Baroda, the local venture is going strong with multiple fields in place, the first of which was erected at the corner of Hinchman & Hollywood Roads, followed by their acquisition of the former Zilke Brothers Nursery building at the intersection of Cleveland and Lemon Creek Road in Baroda where they are continuing to expand a major new processing center as well as huge new fields of hops post & wire trellis systems. They have also established other fields in the area as hops production literally explodes alongside the craft brewing industry.
Hop Head Farms alone will harvest 130 acres of hops this year and will expand again to more than 200 acres by the 2017 growing season, and eventually up to about 500 acres. In addition to processing facilities at Hickory Corners and Baroda, Hop Head Farms will build a third facility in Paw Paw next year.
The hops in the photo above were growing at Hinchman & Hollywood in recent days and will be part of the harvest this month.
