Beer-makers want Wisconsin hopps

UNDATED (WSAU) Wisconsin’s beer-makers want to buy their hops closer to home. And the U-W Extension will hold a workshop this month to show local farmers how it’s done. It’s set for March 27th in Black River Falls.

Wisconsin has over 60 breweries – and they generally must look to the Pacific Northwest to buy the hops that determine the smoothness or bitterness of a beer’s flavor. The state used to be a big producer of hops in the mid-1800’s. But insects, disease, and over-production caused the crop to almost disappear.

James Altweis, whose company grows hops in Menomonie, said there’s been a distribution nightmare the past couple of years. He said brewers had to pay 22-dollars a pound for poor quality hops that netted growers just three-dollars. Altweis says brewers are willing to pay a steady 12-to-15-dollars for a high-quality product. He says it takes a lot of work, but farmers could get up to 10-thousand dollars an acre. Altweis says it would take about 36-hundred acres to provide enough hops for 400 small brewers in the Upper Midwest.