Breeding New York hops for the rapidly expanding craft brewing and hop beverage industry.
Craft brewers want hop varieties that are unique to New York
U.S. craft beer retail sales sales grew 3% in 2023 to $28.9 billion, accounting for 24.7% of the U.S. beer market. New York has 539 craft breweries – second most in the U.S. – that generate $4.2 B in economic impact. Many of those breweries want to make beers using local, NY-grown ingredients. While hop acreage has grown over 40% in the US over the last 10 years, 99% of hops are bred and grown in the Pacific Northwest and many do not perform well in the NY climate. Cornell and CCE are working with the Hop Growers of NY (HoGNY) to breed a high-yielding, disease-resistant, and aromatic hop that performs well for growers and that can be marketed by brewers as New York’s hop.
Disease pressure is a major threat to sustainable hop production in New York
The often cool and damp climate in New York is very favorable to diseases of hop, including powdery mildew, downy mildew, and a new threat – halo blight. Hops bred in the PNW are not specifically selected for resistance to these diseases, so we have begun to evaluate breeding lines with the goal of breeding and selecting new hop varieties that display resistance to these devastating diseases.
Brewers and beverage companies are seeking aromatic hops
Our breeding program will develop high-throughput analytical methods to quantify aromatic flavor components, so we can select new hop varieties with unique sensory attributes.
Key Accomplishments and Plans
- Estblished 3-acre germplasm collection demonstration hopyard consisting of 32 commercial varieties and 12 NY heritage hop
- Planted first round of seedlings from 2021 cross
- Characterization of heritage hops collected in NY and crosses to produce new Cornell breeding lines.
- Survey and collection of powdery mildew, downy mildew and halo blight pathogens to screen for resistance and conduct disease management research.
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