As a high-altitude state known for its harsh climate, Wyoming isn’t an ideal location for growing hops, the small pinecone-like flowers produced by the hops plant. These odd flowers are a key ingredient in the beer-brewing process, producing bitter flavors and unique aromas.

While microbreweries have gained popularity across Wyoming, hops production has not. For brewers interested in experimenting with wet hops, which requires starting the brewing process within 24 hours of harvest, the lack of local hops presents a challenge.

Urszula Norton, a professor of plant sciences based in Laramie, saw this conundrum as an opportunity for local producers and brewers—if growing hops at 7,200 feet in a cold, windy, low-humidity location was feasible.

So far, her research suggests that it’s possible, though commercial production may not be practical in the Laramie Valley.

A challenging environment

When graduate student Rhett Greenwald began working on Norton’s project in 2022, only four of seven hops varieties at ACRES Student Farm had survived their first year. As he monitored the remaining plants for growth and yield quantity and quality, the data looked promising—until hail decimated the crop. The following year, a May snowstorm damaged the vines; while they recovered, yield remained low.

Norton and Greenwald have donated several small batches of hops to a local brewery. While the samples were well received, the researchers recognize that larger-scale production could be challenging in Laramie’s harsh and often unpredictable weather conditions. “Brewers have valid concerns about whether quantity and quality could be guaranteed,” Greenwald comments.

Of the four hops varieties that Greenwald tested, Zeus performed the best, closely followed by Chinook and Centennial. Cascade did not perform well and is not recommended for production in the Laramie Valley.

Measuring success

To assess plant performance and health, Greenwald monitored the chlorophyll content in the plants’ leaves, taking measurements every other week during the growing season. Hops plants grow best when provided a trellis structure to climb, and by the end of the summer, data collection meant climbing a ladder to reach the top of the towering vines.

At the end of each season, Greenwald gathered yield data, weighing the freshly harvested hops, then recording their oven-dried weight as well. To determine quality, he measured the levels of alpha and beta acids in both fresh and dried hops.

“Alpha and beta acids lend themselves to the aromatic component of beer and also the bittering and preserving aspect,” Greenwald explains. “Those secondary metabolites can be affected by cultivation practices like tillage, production management, and fertilization as well as environmental factors like heat stress and drought stress.”

Different varieties of hops are characterized by different levels of alpha and beta acids. For a local grower to succeed, they’d need to produce hops with consistent levels of these compounds. Quality-wise, the hops grown in Laramie yielded fairly standard levels of alpha and beta acids, though harvest quantity was limited.

Biochar yields promising results

 In addition to analyzing plant productivity and yield, Greenwald quantified soil fertility using measurements of soil moisture and plant-available nitrogen. This data was used to compare how hops performed with different soil treatments, namely the addition of biochar.

Hops plants are considered heavy feeders, meaning that commercial producers often treat them with nitrogen fertilizer at specific growth stages. Greenwald and Norton did not fertilize the plants in their study. Instead, they treated half the plants with biochar, short for biological charcoal.

Biochar is generated by burning organic materials in a low-oxygen environment. Research suggests that biochar can act as a slow-release fertilizer, capture nutrients, and sequester carbon in the soil. Biochar may also have anti-fungal and anti-disease properties.

Greenwald’s experiment is likely the first to investigate how biochar affects hops plants. For his research, Greenwald used biochar produced locally from dead cottonwood trees. He found that the plots with added biochar had higher chlorophyll content and higher soil moisture than the plots without biochar. The plants with biochar also produced higher quality and quantity yields.

Since the soil amended with biochar had greater water and nutrient retention, it may reduce the amount of conventional fertilizer required to boost hops production, Greenwald notes. This could have both economic and environmental benefits.

A hopeful future

While the Laramie Valley might not be the ideal location, Norton and Greenwald’s research demonstrates that hops production is indeed possible in Wyoming.

“If they can grow as well as they did in Laramie’s tough environment and elevation, there’s really good potential for them throughout the state, especially with the increase in microbreweries and home brewers,” Greenwald says.

To learn more, contact Norton at unorton@uwyo.edu.

This article was originally published in the 2024 issue of Reflections, the annual research magazine published by the UW College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources.