It sounds too good to be true, maybe even apocryphal: a hop grown on a farm since the 1960s–by a retired veterinarian who enjoyed the shade it provided–turns out to be not only genetically unique to Maryland, but also genetically distinct from other wild hops, such as neomexicanus. A brewer finds out about it, as does a plant scientist from the University of Maryland Agriculture Extension, who was already experimenting with a hop yard at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center in Keedysville, where at least 24 varieties of hops were the subject of research for their suitability in the state. The brewer then trades beer for some hop bines. A severe storm in July of 2020 destroys the crops in the hop yard, leading both brewer and scientist back to that farm in Frederick County. The scientist assumes the hop is Cluster or Centennial, the former one of the oldest known American varieties and the latter the centerpiece of many west coast IPAs, but sends it to the United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service genebank in Corvallis, Oregon all the same, and gets surprising news. Please welcome Monocacy, Maryland’s hop.
Last winter the first commercial batches of beer, about forty pounds of pelletized dried Monocacy hops harvested in the fall of 2022 from a rebuilt UMD hop yard, made their way to Milkhouse Brewery at Stillpoint Farm where that same brewer, Tom Barse, owner of Milkhouse, made three beers with Monocacy: a light lager, a Vienna-style lager, and a pale ale. These were released in the on-site taproom as part of the annual “FeBREWary – Maryland Craft Beer Lovers Month” that is perhaps best known in DC for the Love Thy Beer festival in Silver Spring. “The hop has similarities in alpha acid and oil composition to old world Noble hops,… a noticeable floral aroma, with notes of spice, herbal, and earthy flavors and aromas as well. We brewed two lighter lager styles to emphasize the character of the hop, and finished the pale ale after a Chinook bittering addition, to evaluate its finishing characteristics, and to see how it played with an ale yeast,” Barse told us. He previously compared Monocacy to a mixture of Saaz and Southern Cross, as reported in an excellent article from All About Beer.
For the second Monocacy hop harvest, the Brewer’s Association of Maryland and University of Maryland are scaling up. On Friday, October 20th, Heavy Seas, Maryland’s largest brewery once more, releases Altimore, a wet-hopped Monocacy altbier at their taproom in Halethorpe. Not an IPA or other pale ale; an altbier. “The Monocacy hop offers spicy, herbaceous, floral aromatics. For our inaugural brew, we chose to craft an Altbier, a traditional German beer style, using whole-flower Monocacy hops for bittering and finishing, which should provide a really nice aroma to this beer,” sayid Chris Leonard, Heavy Seas Brewmaster and Director of Operations, in a press release. While a few of the Milkhouse beers made it to bottles, they were for promotional and educational purposes. Heavy Seas will pour pints and fill crowlers on Friday, October 20th, making it easier for us to taste Maryland’s native hop.
There’s more on the way, too. In the first half of 2024 Heavy Seas expects to release beers made with pelletized Monocacy hops, including packaged–bottles or cans–releases. “We’re excited to see what else we can create. We plan to explore different beer styles and utilize the Monocacy hop in different stages of the production to test how it can be best employed,” says Leonard, who is also expecting more chemical analyses of the hop from the University of Maryland to aid in choosing which beer styles to pursue.
“From what we can tell so far, the Monocacy hop grows very well in Maryland. Our hope is to continue growing it, share it with more local brewers, while we continue testing its commercial viability,” says Bryan Butler, the aforementioned plant scientist and Principle Agent in Agriculture and Natural Resources with the University of Maryland Extension. “It will be critical to see if the Monocacy hop can not only thrive, but excel in crafting outstanding beers.”
A hop that is tolerant to the local climate and common crop diseases; that is locally grown, which cuts down on transportation costs and mitigates supply chain disruptions; and that imparts flavors both brewers and drinkers are looking for is potentially lucrative business, but that is a medium-term proposition. “Until further study and propagation efforts are undertaken, it will be several years before this cultivar is available in saleable quantities,” notes Butler.
An additional opportunity to try Alitmore is at the Baltimore Craft Beer Festival on November 4th. In the meantime, watch Heavy Seas’ social media for upcoming releases, and Maryland Public Television, which will air a segment on the Monocacy hop on February 6th, 2024, just in time for the next iteration of FeBREWary and Love Thy Beer.
