Ronda Payne
Hops Festival
It was early October when sell-out crowds made their way to a hop farm in Abbotsford to celebrate the first annual BC Hop Fest. Only recently making their way back into fields in B.C., hops are getting help from Dwayne Stewart, owner of Valley Hops.
He sees the return of hops as a great way to capitalize on the growing craft beer market, to contribute to the demand for local ingredients by breweries and also to help farmers and growers make greater use of under-utilized fields.
Stewart, his wife Diane and another organizer put the event together which was held on the Stewart’s east Abbotsford farm complete with food trucks, live entertainment, chocolate and close to 20 local and regional breweries with their products on tap. More than 500 people tipped a glass, tapped their feet and snacked.
“We’ve already got breweries running out,” said Stewart of a few popular beer varieties late in the afternoon of the event.
While many of the breweries on site used hops grown by the Stewarts in their products served at the event, a few unlikely items included the local hops as well. Lepp Farm market used hops Stewart supplied to create hopperoni and a hop dog. The latter was served up by one of the food trucks in their gourmet hot dog creations.
Chocolates from ChocolaTas were also an unorthodox use of the crop with award-winning chocolatier Wim Tas using hops for the first time in a custom creation.
“I never worked with hops before,” Tas said. “The first two batches were interesting. In other words, I threw them out.”
The second annual BC Hop Fest is already set for Oct. 1, 2016.
