Could I make a living growing hops?

Question

My wife told me that she was thinking about the idea of selling our house, buying some land and building a new home and growing hops. There is and always has been a high demand for hops for beer production, and beer is always in high demand. I wouldn't mind doing this because it would mean that we could spend more time together and work for ourselves. I just don't know how realistic this goal is.

Answer 1

A friend is a hop grower.  He told me that, in order to make any real money from hops, you need to have it tested every year to determine alpha acids.  To do this, you'll have to send 20 pounds to a lab for testing.

That's a lot of hops.  Unless you plan on growing acres of it (which takes years and cost money in equipment, I wouldn't recommend it.

Answer 2

It is unlikely that you could. Most brewers, even the small ones, tend to contract with one of the major hop distributors like Hopunion (http://hopunion.com/), so you would need to go through them to insure consistency of sales.

Right now there is a big hop shortage and prices have gone up dramatically, but one would have to assume the market will correct itself, even if it takes a few years. You could probably sell hops direct to brewers through a forum such as Probrewer (http://www.probrewer.com/vbulletin/forum...

Also keep in mind, it takes several years of growing hops before they get to their full growth.

Your best bet for a small farm would be to connect with a local brewery for your entire crop with an eye towards them making a harvest ale, which have become quite popular in recent years. These beers use freshly picked hops for a once-a-year brew. This has the advantage that you would not need to deal with drying of the hops or going through a middle man and would allow you to build up your crop to a size where the big distributers would be interested.

Answer 3

I also considered a small ager-business

but I was considering the wine production

after thinking about the work involved the equipment power tools rototillers graders Cherry pickers,,, you (I) would  be forced to hire laborers..

IT can be done if your young enough and have money..

buy the ranch,,, raise  Alpaca's,, Lama's,, goat's  their wool (?) is highly prizes