Looking for Zeus in the clouds while reality can be found on earth. At least Zeus Lupulo (hops) are found in Brazil for beer production. While beer and specifically craft breweries, are growing in popularity in Brazil and USA. Increase in demand and every place searching for their unique flavor to attract customers, a hop variety is key to creating that profile. As a few local coffee farmers discovered, the best way is to take advantage of the new market of local breweries looking for local ingredients. The model made by coffee applied to beer. The hops grower grows a variety of hops to allow for combinations and selection of what the breweries will like when they can receive fresh products. Learning about this with a Brazilian flavor on the same feelings found in the USA with local products. Seeing hop production, especially for an area that is new to production, is not something I thought about before going to Brazil. This is typically associated with the pacific northwest in the United States. One striking difference is that Brazil’s hot and sunny temperature is not commonly associated with hop production. This lesson is that hops can be adapted for quality and highly profitable production when the time and effort are put into this. The idea of growing hops in the USA greatly appeals to me as this is farming that can apply creativity and not a high buy-in to be a farmer that is usually associated. I never really wanted to farm while I do production research for agriculture; it just takes going to the last place you would think to learn about hops to spark an Idea for producing local products for local markets. Several hop varieties provided a good agronomic experience that could not be possible without being in the right place and looking at the soil, not the clouds, for Zeus.
