The hop plant is unique. The flowers resemble an alien green pineapple. The fast-growing hanging vine can grow up to 30 feet tall, spreads almost 3 feet wide and lives for 20 years. The hop flower is not sweet. It’s what gives the bitterness to the beer while offering floral and citrus flavor to the brew. Consider the delicious hoppy IPA or pale ale. While hops can be ornamental and provide shade in the summer months, come fall it is harvest time.
In the Tahoe Sierra, hops grow wild. According to owner of the recently opened Donner Creek Brewing, Greg Speicher, Truckee’s first brewery in Boca was making lager in the late 19th Century. Hops were grown in the region to make their beer – The Shred. Back then, hops were also imported from Sacramento and Napa and it seems the seeds were sown in the soil of the Tahoe region.
The Brews
Slow Food hops
Alibi Ale Works | Truckee & Incline Village
alibialeworks.com
The Louie Wet Hops
The Brewing Lair | Blairsden
thebrewinglair.com
The Shred
Donner Creek Brewing | Truckee
Donner Creek Brewing on Facebook
Boca Ghost
The Good Wolf Brewing | Truckee
thegoodwolfbrewing.com
Speicher is a fan of locally grown hops; he harvested the flowers growing wild around Truckee — on West River Street in particular. With his bounty of hops, he produced a small batch of seasonal beer. The brewery serves several types of beers from IPAs to pale ales, along with a mild English brew and French Saison. The hops provide bitterness to balance the sweetness of the malt.
“They have a lot of citrus and pine notes,” says Speicher.
Donner Creek Brewing on Deerfield Drive in Truckee serves gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches, along with small-batch craft beers and a selection of gluten-free hard seltzers and ciders.
Kati Townsend Merino, director of Slow Food Lake Tahoe’s Food Bank Garden, also grows hops. They donated their yield to Alibi Ale Works with locations in Truckee and Incline Village, Nev. Alibi Ale Works will produce a beer from the hops and donate a portion of the proceeds back to the Food Bank Garden.
Susan Delano, co-owner of The Brewing Lair in Blairsden, also uses locally grown hops to create the Louie Wet Hops beer. Gary Romano of Sierra Valley Farms grows hops annually, which are donated to the Brewers Lair. The beer is a tribute to Romano’s father, Louie, who recently passed away.
“We harvest the hops every Labor Day weekend if the hops are cooperating. We have about 40 volunteers that pick the hops from 9 to 5,” says Delano.
Once harvested, they take the hops directly to the brewery and brew them as quickly as possible. “The hops deteriorate rapidly, and we want the hops as fresh as possible,” she says.
Her husband Rich is the head brewer and co-owner of The Brewing Lair. He brews several different types of ales, both year-round and seasonal varieties. The Louie Wet Hops doesn’t have a high alcohol content and offers a lovely hint of hops.
This year volunteers picked 115 pounds of hops, which yielded 15 barrels of brew, the equivalent to 450 gallons of beer. The beer is available on tap for another month. The Brewing Lair is an outdoor venue, open seven days a week through November. Once winter sets in, they’ll move to weekend hours and set up a fire pit.
The Good Wolf, also brewing in Truckee, will be releasing its Boca Ghost in November brewed from hops harvested from behind New Moon Natural Moons.
Along with making great beer, hops can be used to make a calming tea and a yeast starter for breadmaking. It can also be added to soups and stews and the flowers can be infused for salad dressing.
