Researchers Keep Michigan Hopping
Researchers Keep Michigan Hopping
January 11, 2021As Michigan’s hop industry grows, many of the state’s craft brewers would prefer to use locally-grown hops for their pilsners, ales and stouts, but a new species of fungus is threatening that prospect.
This isn’t going to threaten our supply of hops, but it hurts our ability to supply locally grown Michigan hops.
- Timothy Miles, Assistant Professor Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
The good news is that MSU researchers are already working on strategies to manage what they’re calling halo blight, the disease caused by the fungus. There also shouldn’t be a hop shortage while they develop those strategies. Although Michigan is the nation’s fourth-largest producer of hops, the Pacific Northwest grows the lion’s share of the crop.
