Wild hops on P.E.I. a growing season away from commercial production | CBC News

Wild hops from the Maritimes could be coming soon to a beer near you after a decade of research, including in a hop yard at the Harrington Research Farm on Prince Edward Island. 

In 2015, two Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers put out a call across the region for wild hops, and were overwhelmed with the response.

They collected more than 60 samples of the plants. Now, after putting them under the microscope, they’ve been growing what they hope are the best prospects.

“There’s probably two or three out there that are very close [to commercial production]. I’d say another year, one year’s data, and we should have everything we need to do for our plant breeders’ rights,” said research scientist Jason McCallum. 

“It’s been a real labour of love. We’ve had some bad summers, we’ve had some hurricanes, we’ve had some disease outbreaks. So it’s been frustrating over the years…. We’re right at the finish line, and I’m very excited.”  

The challenges included damage from post-tropical storm Dorian in 2019.

“Dorian hit us very hard. About half the poles in the hop yard actually snapped and came down,” McCallum said. 

“Then we had COVID to deal with, and we rebuilt the hop yard and we lost a little bit of time.” 

‘Desirable’ characteristics

McCallum said there are certain wild hops that have stood out.

“Some of them have really unusual smells associated with them, things like melon and cucumber, and almost like candy,” he said. 

“Some of them have the highest alpha acids I’ve ever seen in any hops anywhere, which is what brewers use to make the bitterness in beer. The higher your alpha acid content in your hops, the less you have to throw into the brew kettle. So it’s kind of a desirable thing for brewers.”

McCallum said they’ve kept in touch with the Maritimers who reached out to them about wild hops. Their names could even be included in the ones that make it into commercial production. 

Some of them have really unusual smells associated with them, things like melon and cucumber, and almost like candy.—Jason McCallum, researcher

“Right now, we have working names mostly associated with the people that gave them to us or the places we found them,” McCallum said. 

“So you might see some things like AAC Morell, or things like that pop up.”

People want local, brewer says

Mike Hogan is one of the founders, and the brewmaster, at Upstreet Brewing in Charlottetown. 

He was also in a home brewing club called the “Aleanders” with the wild hops researchers. 

“I think it’s awesome. People are always wanting to support more locally made products and the next extension of that is, you know, trying to increase the amount of local ingredients that go into our beers as well,” Hogan said. 

“I’m interested to know what they taste like on their own, and how they smell, and also how they might fit into one of our beers.”

Hogan said depending on their taste profile, some of the varieties could replace hops he’s buying from places like the U.S. West Coast.

He said any new ingredient that comes into the brewery goes through a vetting process, starting with a small pilot.

 “If it passes all our expectations, and tastes great, then we’d love to make a beer with them.”

McCallum said he looks forward to seeing what the brewers come up with.

“One of my colleagues is a home brewer, and I’ve played around with a little bit myself, so we have thrown in some wild ones from time to time just to see what the flavour is like,” McCallum said. 

“It would be definitely something to celebrate — with a glass of beer, for sure.”