Discovery of Wild Hops Brews New Possibilities at This Virginia Farm

Agriculturist Davi Bowen picks a papery green cone from an 18-foot-tall vine and splits it open between his fingers. The aromatic essence of craft beer wafts from the yellow powder hiding inside the cone. This is the flower of a hop plant, the key ingredient used by brewers to stabilize and infuse unique flavors into that beloved beverage, beer.

Davi Bowen demonstrates the yellow powder that gives hops its signature aroma and taste. Photo/Andrew Shurtleff Photography, LLC

Bowen tends the hopyard at Greenmont Farms, a family farm just outside of Charlottesville, Virginia, co-owned and operated by Darden School of Business professor of practice Meghan Murray and her father, James B. Murray Jr., former Rector of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors.

The farm has been in their family for more than 100 years, and Meghan currently lives there with her husband and children. The farm was originally a cattle farm, but nowadays hay is its primary product. The hopyard was born as an experiment in diversification.

Hopyards in Virginia are few and far between – there are fewer than 20 in the state. Greenmont Hopworks is the largest with only about 8 acres of hops and the only processing facility in the state. Virginia, it turns out, is a challenging climate in which to grow hops due to the excess heat, shorter summer days and higher humidity with attendant mildew and fungi, compared with more northerly climates where the crop is typically grown.

But the serendipitous discovery of wild hops on Greenmont Farms – hops naturally adapted to the local climate – may change everything.

The Discovery

A traditionally European crop originating in Germany, hops are typically grown in the US in regions situated on a similar latitude as their European counterpart, like the pacific northwest or certain areas in Michigan. But after extensive research on the climate and market forces in Virginia, the Murrays decided to give hops a chance anyway. The craft beer market was booming in Virginia, and there was an opportunity to serve brewers and customers eager for local ingredients and unique flavors.

The Murrays procured hop root stock, or rhizomes, from a specialty grower in Oregon and began the experiment.

In 2018, just weeks after the team harvested the first, small crop of hops, Jim Murray made the discovery. While crossing a stream on his cross-country motorcycle in a remote area of the farm, he noticed some vines growing out of the streambed and into the trees above.

“And on those vines were some blossoms that looked like hops,” he said.

Murray was skeptical, but he had just witnessed the growth cycle of hops up close with their first crop. It was possible that no one had had enough knowledge to recognize them before that year.

“I mean, we had gone to all of the trouble to import hops from Oregon, and here they looked just like hops. So I took out my pocket knife, cut a couple of pieces of them, crushed them, and they smelled like hops,” he said.

Murray took samples home to be tested. “I was in disbelief and kind of excited,” he said. “And as it turns out, it couldn’t have been more serendipitous.”

The wild-growing plants were indeed hops. Though hop-growing was never widespread in Virginia, some growers did import the crop between 1750 and 1800 to Virginia, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison among them. However, genetic testing revealed the Greenmont Farms find to be an unusual 100% American hop variety.

Greenmont Mother is Born

This hop variety, which the Murrays eventually trademarked “Greenmont Mother,” has ostensibly been growing wild since around that time. Over the centuries, it adapted to Virginia’s climate.

Once the Murrays dug up the roots and started cultivating Greenmont Mother, the difference was clear in comparison to the hops they grew from the pacific northwest. Greenmont Mother matures faster but later, and grows taller and more easily than modern hybrid varieties And it is naturally resistant to pests and resilient to local mildew and fungus, products of Virginia’s summer heat and humidity. Therefore, the need for interventions like irrigation, pesticides and fungicides are less necessary, or in some seasons not needed at all.

It’s a big win for Greenmont Farms’ sustainability goals, too. The farm currently generates enough energy to power farm operations and the main farmhouse with two solar arrays. Bowen uses biological fungicides and pesticides rather than chemical versions when possible, and underground drip irrigation lines allow for targeted delivery of these substances along with fertilizer and water, rather than spraying, which is less precise and can affect the surrounding environment.

Greenmont Hopworks grows several varieties of modern hops. Photo/Andrew Shurtleff Photography, LLC

The farm is still growing several varieties of modern hops, including Chinook, Newport and Cascade, but the difference between those varieties and Greenmont Mother is clear even to the untrained eye. In July of this year, the Greenmont Mother hops appeared fuller and taller in comparison to the other varieties growing on the trellis system. Bowen hasn’t needed to use pesticide on them at all this year.

“They are 10 times more resistant than the other varieties,” he said.

Once the Greenmont Farms team realized they had a unique hop variety on their hands that transplanted well, and they proved they could cultivate it over the course of a year, plans soon formed to obtain a patent. The process to obtain an agricultural patent is not for the faint of heart – it typically takes about seven years to meet the requirements, which has included finding another native Virginia hop and creating a unique hybrid that will eventually be the definitive “Greenmont Mother.” But the Murrays and team are close – they expect the patent to come through this year or next.

“That’s what we are propagating and putting most of our energy into,” said Meghan Murray.

When the patent is in hand, they will be able to license the crop to other farms who want to grow and cross-breed Greenmont Mother. This has become the centerpiece of their hops business plan.

Practitioner First

Meghan Murray in one of Greenmont Farms’ hopyards. Photo/Andrew Shurtleff Photography, LLC

Meghan Murray has been teaching at Darden since 2012, and now teaches courses on communication and financial storytelling. Before Darden she worked in the technology industry, and during her tenure as a professor she has run her own consulting company, worked as an administrator at UVA and worked on Greenmont Farms all the while.

“I am a practitioner,” she said. “So that’s what I try to bring into the classroom.”

She uses her experience in a wide range of fields to help students work through cases, including lessons learned from the farm when helpful. “The Darden classroom is more about the students than the faculty member, but I try to use my own experience to guide the conversation…I might share something about the patent process, or something about working with the great people I work with here on the farm.”

Virginia Flavor

Bowen has been working at Greenmont Farms towards this goal for five years as chief agriculturalist. Working to cultivate and experiment with this new variety presents an ever-changing, exciting challenge.

Davi Bowen is chief agriculturalist at Greenmont Farms. Photo/Andrew Shurtleff Photography, LLC

“It’s a work in progress [and I’m] learning a lot from it. It’s a different crop from most, especially here in Virginia,” Bowen said. He is “responsible for all the innovation in our hops,” according to Meghan Murray. Bowen has his own experimental plot on the farm, where he tries out techniques for growing hops and trying out hybrids – a process that changes every year, depending on the weather and other environmental conditions.

“We’ve been so lucky to have him,” said Meghan Murray. “He just elevated what we do.”

As the team has worked toward the agricultural patent, the hopyard has reached production capacity and local brewers are buying and brewing with Greenmont Mother, including Devil’s Backbone Brewing Co., Starr Hill Brewery, and Selvedge Brewing.

“I always enjoy getting to use locally grown raw materials,” said Josh Skinner, head brewer at Selvedge Brewing. “The Greenmont Mother lent the beer some nice tea and subtle chamomile herbaceous notes. The beer moved pretty quick through our taproom, so I think people liked it.”

The hops make for beer with a mild flavor profile, with notes of peach and citrus, and is good for lagers, ales and other light beers. While strongly flavored “hoppy” IPAs are more on trend than the mild flavor Greenmont Mother imparts to beer, Meghan Murray is confident that the more classic profile of the hops will stand the test of time and weather trends well.

“From a business perspective, it’s good to propagate it because more people drink light beer than anything else,” she said.

While the future of hop cultivation in Virginia remains to be seen, Greenmont Mother has opened up possibilities the Murrays couldn’t have anticipated when they started out.

“We hope to have a product that’s unlike anything else that anyone else has in the world,” said Jim Murray. “The jury is still out on whether hops will ever be a good business in Virginia. I think if it is, it’s going to be with a hops variety like this that takes less expense and less manpower to grow.”

Greenmont Farms is located just south of Charlottesville, Virginia, near the Blue Ridge Mountains. Photo/Andrew Shurtleff Photography, LLC

Regardless of the hops project’s future, preservation of Greenmont Farms and its pastures, streams, and forests will always be a passion project for the Murrays. Hummingbirds scatter as Meghan Murray steps out from home onto the porch facing the “backyard,” featuring a sweeping vista of the farm’s rolling fields framed by the gentle Blue Ridge Mountains.

“It’s the house that my mother grew up in, which was once just cinder block,” she said. “And then I grew up in this house and now I have kids who are living in this house.”

Jim Murray inherited the family’s care for the land, as well. “What’s really important to [my wife’s] family, and now important to me because I’ve lived there for 50 years, is the land itself,” he said. “We have deep roots there. We care deeply about it, and we designed the farming operation to make it a sustainable farm that hopefully could be passed on to another generation.”