Skip to main content

Sky High Hops - Flemington, NJ

With the insane growth of the number of breweries in New Jersey, it's not surprising to see businesses related to the beer industry sprouting up throughout the state.  Breweries need supplies and ingredients, and businesses are stepping up to fill this need.  From labs maintaining yeast strains, farms building hop yards, and mobile canning lines that jump from brewery to brewery, businesses from all over the state are embracing the explosion of the local beer community.

Anthony Verdi and his family created Sky High Hops to supply breweries with a quality product that can make their beers stand out.  Situated at Sage Hill Farm in Flemington, NJ, Sky High Hops is in their second growing season with no plans of slowing down.

Sage Hill Farm, Sky High Hops, Flemington, NJ
The entrance to the Hop Yard at Sage Hill Farm

Three types of hops are currently grown in the Sky High Hops yard..  The Centennial and Cascade vines are in their second year, while the Chinook vines are first year.  Owner Anthony Verdi says their yield and quality has been great on such young plants.


Sage Hill Farm, Sky High Hops, Flemington, NJ
Beautiful handmade signs to guide you in the hop yard
Sage Hill Farm, Sky High Hops, Flemington, NJ
The Centennial vines are almost ready!


The diligent farmers at Sage Hill were able to yield enough hops from their first growing season to use in a few different local beers.  Flemington, NJ's Lone Eagle Brewing used wet (freshly picked, not dried) Cascade and Centennial hops in a brown ale aptly named "Hunterdon Wet Hopped Brown Ale." More of Sky High Hops' Cascades were later used in a pale ale from Lone Eagle Brewing.


Sage Hill Farm, Sky High Hops, Flemington, NJ
Cascades to the left!

Sage Hill Farm, Sky High Hops, Flemington, NJ
Cascades are shooting "Sky High," but still need time to mature


"Drinking a beer brewed using hops that we grew here on the farm is something special.  Not much can compare to that, " says owner Anthony Verdi.


Sage Hill Farm, Sky High Hops, Flemington, NJ
Flowering Cascade

Sage Hill Farm, Sky High Hops, Flemington, NJ
Single row of Chinook vines

Sky High Hops is currently taking orders for their 2017 growing season.  If you want wet hops, let them know soon!  Sales are also open to homebrewers, so feel free to contact Anthony at Sky High Hops.

Make sure to check out their website!  They have lots of great information on their methods of growing, harvesting, and drying their hops.

Sky High Hops links:

Facebook

Sage Hill Farm, Sky High Hops, Flemington, NJ
Looking over the yard at Sky High Hops



Comments

  1. Wow, loving the pictures. I've always wanted to grow hops but never had the space. Very nice!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dogfish Head Positive Contact

Frankenstorm is on it's way.  Bread: Check.  Candles: Check.  Ice: Check.  Beer: Check!  The big storm is supposed to strike land here in NJ late Sunday night into early Monday morning, and last until late Tuesday.  Kerry and I live in the western part of NJ, so we should be safe from most of it, except for local river flooding.  Tonight I'll be reviewing Positive Contact from Dogfish Head.  This is their collaboration with Dan the Automator (who I honestly had never heard of before this collaboration). I poured Positive Contact into my Yards Brewing tulip glass.  It poured a pale orange, golden color with a two and a half finger width head.  Apples, bananas and peppers hit my nose right away.  The smell is incredible and strong.  The Positive Contact is full of flavor, and reminds me of a smooth drinking Belgian tripel.  It tastes immediately of fruity esters, mainly banana.  The finish is peppery.  I'm not getting any apple flavor.  This beer is light bodied, with

BJCP: Strong Scotch Ale (9E)

This is the first article in a new series of posts, where I will periodically choose a section from the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) style guidelines , write about the style, and then drink and publish my tasting notes from some of the commercial examples given by the BJCP.  Now, I'm not sure if I will ever actually take the exam to become a beer judge, but I think this will be a fun exercise to learn more about beer! Fair warning, I will not be doing the sections of the BJCP style guidelines in any sort of order.  Whichever kinds of beer I am craving is what I will be writing about! Strong Scotch Ales (also known as Wee Heavy) comprise sub-category 9E in the BJCP style guidelines.  They range between 6.5% and 10.0% ABV, and have a light copper to dark brown appearance.  Obviously, strong scotch ales are all about showcasing the malt.  While studying this style, I found it quite interesting that the brewers ferment out the wort at cooler temperatures than other

The Six-Pack Project: New Jersey

Welcome to the Six-Pack Project!  The idea of the project is to create a six-pack of beer that would best represent the current beer scene in your respective state.  For me, that is obviously New Jersey.  The Six-Pack Project was created by Bryan over at the This Is Why I'm Drunk blog.  Check out his introduction to the project here ! 10 years ago, beer probably wasn't the first thing that came to your mind when you were thinking about New Jersey.  However, times are changing, and it's an exciting time to be a beer drinker in the Garden State.  Every year, more and more bars are starting to serve a greater variety in beer.  Even more importantly, new breweries haven been opening in NJ each year, and lots more are in planning Today, there is a wide variety of beer brewed here in New Jersey.  Choosing six beers to best represent the state was no easy feat, but I was up for it!  Hopefully, the following will clue you in a little bit more to some o