---
title: Home Brew
date: 2023-03-16T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/home-brew"
section: Articles
---
# Home Brew

*March 16, 2023* — by [Maggie Haslam](/author/maggie-haslam)


> UMD-Cultivated Hop Has Maryland Breweries, Farmers Abuzz

*IMG 1147 19200x1080 — The Monocacy hop, a native hop being researched and cultivated by the University of Maryland Agricultural Extension, could provide the state's craft brewing industry a sustainable, locally-grown alternative for lagers, pale ales and more. Above, a flight of beers at Mt. Airy's Milkhouse Brewery made with the Monocacy hop. Below, Monocacy hops growing at the Western Maryland Research and Education Center's "hop yard."*

The staff at [Milkhouse Brewery](https://www.milkhousebrewery.com/)’s tap room is used to people clamoring for pints of hazy IPA, orange-spiked hefeweizen and Baltic porter. But lately, those favorites have taken a back seat to new brews with literal Maryland roots: the Monocacy hop, a seemingly indestructible, prolific native hop strain that hid in plain sight for close to a century and is now being championed by UMD researchers as a bellwether for Maryland’s booming beer industry.

Since debut last month at Mount Airy, Md.’s Milkhouse—where it can be found exclusively in two lagers and a pale ale—the hop has lured hordes of beer enthusiasts to the Terp-owned independent brewery to drink in its delicate flavor, reminiscent of the smooth noble hops of central Europe.

“It’s different from any hop I’ve ever brewed with,” said Tom Barse ‘77, owner of Milkhouse, who has been brewing beer since 1972. “It has this verdant green earthiness to it that’s like walking into a flower shop. And people love it.”

The story behind the Monocacy hop began on a shorthorn cattle farm in Frederick, Md., where it had been growing wild and aggressively, overtaking fencing and nearly swallowing the farm’s chicken coop. A chance conversation with the owner—who recognized the cone-shaped flowers from his childhood in the Pacific Northwest—brought Barse out to procure some cuttings. He eventually brought the hop to Bryan Butler ‘84, a principal agent at the University of Maryland Agricultural Extension (UME) in Carroll County, who has been experimenting for years with different hop varieties on a modest half-acre “hop yard” at UMD’s Western Maryland Research and Education Center in Keedysville.

While Barse and Butler were initially skeptical of the hop’s provenance, a sample sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Germplasm Repository returned with a surprising result: The plant was unlike any of the 629 genotypes found in the USDA ARS National Hop Collection, with characteristics similar to a wild American hop.


*hops growing in field*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [University of Maryland Extension](https://today.umd.edu/topic/university-of-maryland-extension-2), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [College of Agriculture and Natural Resources](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-agriculture-and-natural-resources)