Our Story

Planning for our operation began in 2011. The first hops were planted in 2013 in New Brunswick, Canada. During these initial years, our focus was on determining which varieties grew well and which varieties produced desirable flavours in response to our Atlantic Canadian climate. As hops are a perennial crop with extraordinary lifetimes, this process took time and significant personal investment. This was time we were more than willing to invest, with a determined patience to arrive at a place with hops that responded optimally to the Maritime Canadian climate to create the best possible product for our brewing partners.

Initially, we started with 17 varieties of hops. We carefully studied their productivity, disease and pest conditions, cost of production data and flavour & brewing characteristics – and we were able to arrive at 6 varieties that responded favourably to the growing conditions.

During this time, we work closely with our partners (Agriculture New Brunswick and our brewing partners at Big Tide Brewing, Loyalist City Brewing and Grimross Brewing) on trials involving all stages of the hop agricultural process from agronomy to processing elements to sensory analysis and finally brewing properties. This allowed us to scientifically refine our processes as well as characterize how to optimally produce, harvest, process and package our selected hop varieties.

During this time, we were humbled to partner with more breweries, and were fortunate enough to be part of award winning beers, as well as some very successful products. The scientific process that drove our decision making allowed us to gain regional, national and international recognition in the form of invited lectures, peer reviewed publications as well as podcast appearances. (See ‘Our Contributions’)

Although sharing knowledge is important to us, as a responsible member of the hop producing community, this recognition is not the focus of our operation. As we continue to move forward, we will continue to focus on the improved production of the highest quality product that is a key ingredient in a world-class product.