Long before “farm-to-glass” was trending, Kathlyn and Larry Fisher were planting hops, resurrecting history and laying the groundwork for a craft beer revival that continues to ripple through Central New York.
Foothill Hops Farm Brewery didn’t begin as a brewery. It started as a question.
“This goes back to about 1996 and an interest that we had in some local history. I asked my husband, Larry, ‘Okay, I’m a farmer’s daughter, but I have no idea what hops are,’” Foothill Hops Farm Brewery Co-Founder Kathlyn Fisher said. “And he says, ‘It has something to do with beer, but I don’t know.’”
Their shared curiosity led the Fishers to the annual Madison County Hop Fest, igniting an unlikely passion for an electrician and a systems analyst who were now considering a pivot to farming.
“Larry went to the beer tent, I went to the historic and educational presentations,” Kathlyn says. “We were both pretty fascinated and kept going back for a couple of years, and then we said, ‘If this was such a big part of Madison County and Central New York history, why don’t people grow hops now?’”
Hops were king in Madison County and throughout Central New York for nearly a century. In 1808, entrepreneur James Coolidge planted the first commercial hop yard in Bouckville, just down the road from Foothill Hops. Farmers feverishly added hops to their crops in the decades that followed and at the peak of production, Central New York was single-handedly supplying U.S. breweries with 90 percent of their hops. The industry shifted west due to fungal issues at the turn of the 20th century and Prohibition in the 1920s.
With help from Cornell University and other experts, the Fishers planted their first quarter-acre hop yard in 2001 – roughly 50 years after the last Madison County hop yard had ceased operations. They had helped form the Northeast Hop Alliance of farmers with this kindred interest, laying the groundwork for New York’s now-thriving farm brewery movement. As their hop yard grew, breweries began sprouting up nearby, including New York’s first licensed farm brewery Good Nature in nearby Hamilton. The New York Farm Brewery Act enacted in 2012 incentivizes breweries to use state-grown ingredients.
By the late 2010s, Larry and Kathlyn faced a crossroads though. With the brewery scene growing way faster than their hop crop, the couple – now in their 60s – decided to switch gears. So, the brewery was born.
“There were other growers with 20 to 40 acres,” she explains. “We said, ‘Let the young folks do the growing and let us have the fun.’”
Today, Foothill Hops Farm Brewery proudly brews beers with all-New York State ingredients and hops grown exclusively on-site by the Fishers themselves. It’s a fraction of their former acreage, but they still manage to produce more than a dozen varieties of hops at the farm for a wide array of styles they offer in the taproom.
Foothill itself is now part of Madison County’s legacy in brewing, bringing the historic hop heritage back to life in every glass. The tasting room is filled with historic photos and items from Central New York’s hop heyday and Kathlyn is always happy to show folks around and talk a little local history that the Fisher family is particularly proud to be a part of.
“One of the things that we have to offer is that glimpse into the historic aspects of hops and what it meant for this area,” Kathlyn said. “What we have is our history and our work ethic and our people. And I think that that’s what it comes down to.”
