Rich Joseph
Water from the Sugar River came within an inch of entering the Hop Garden's Paoli taproom, but has since receded.
Recent rains have taken a toll on this year’s harvest at the Hop Garden farm near Belleville. The farm is the primary source for all the hops in Hop Garden beers. Owner Rich Joseph says he had just started the seasonal harvest as heavy rains hit Dane County and areas of southern Wisconsin, swelling local rivers and streams on Monday, Aug. 20. “The water came right down the Sugar River and flooded us at our farm,” says Joseph.
The Hop Garden’s hop yard is about five miles south of Belleville. The field that suffered damage is located about 1,000 feet from the Sugar River. At the height of the flooding, the water encroached on about half of the eight acres of hops, leaving some sections of the field in 3 feet of standing water.
The flooding made it impossible for Joseph and his harvesting crew to get equipment into the field to pick the hops that were at their ripest point. The longer the hops sit waiting to be harvested, the more are lost to spoilage. Joseph estimates that not getting into the field during the three days following the heaviest rains caused him to lose about 80 percent of this year’s Centennial hop crop.
Rich Joseph
Joseph estimates that not getting into the field during the three days following the heaviest rains caused him to lose about 80 percent of this year’s Centennial hop crop.
Joseph is still in the midst of harvesting his 2018 crop and has concerns that if rainy and high humidity conditions continue and the harvest is delayed this week, the remaining hops in the field will suffer too. “The Centennials are mostly lost, but I'm still hoping that we will get all of our Nuggets out of the field," says Joseph. The Hop Garden grows about a half dozen different varieties of hops. “It’s hard to tell what we’re going to end up with for the total harvest,” says Joseph.
Centennials are used to make the Hop Garden’s Paoli Gold golden ale. Joseph expects to have enough to make the beer until next summer, but after that he anticipates buying hops from other Wisconsin farmers to keep the beer on local shelves until the 2019 crop is harvested. Paoli Gold is among the brewery’s best sellers.
The Hop Garden routinely sells the hops it doesn't need for its own beers to other breweries. Given the recent flood damage, Joseph expects he'll have just enough other hop varieties to get by himself next year, but doesn't expect to have much to sell to others. Across of all of his varieties, Joseph says he could be looking at a 40 percent reduction in this year's total harvest. He estimates those losses at over $10,000.
The Hop Garden also has a taproom in Paoli, 10 miles north of the hop farm. Joseph says the high water from the Sugar River came within an inch of entering the taproom, but has since receded.
Horticulturalist and hop expert James Altwies tells Isthmus that if the rain continues and the area experiences a prolonged period of high humidity at night over the next week, growers will start to see downy mildew problems with hops this fall. That could be a bigger deal as the harvest window opens for other varieties. High humidity overnight can create more mildew problems. Prolonged wet and humid conditions (not just a single flood event where water goes up and then away) may lead to yield reductions next year, says Altwies.
