Richmond distiller starting first Virginia hops processing facility

Calling all hops farmers.

Virginia is about to get its first processing facility for hops, which will open the door for more farmers to grow an ingredient that’s critical for making beer.

Jonathan Staples first considered planting hops at Black Hops Farm in Loudoun County because he wanted Richmond-based James River Distillery, which he co-owns, to use as many Virginia-grown ingredients as possible.

“I wanted to use Virginia hops in our gin, but we couldn’t because they weren’t available year-round,” Staples said.

Now Staples’ vision is expanding, and he hopes his hops farm and a planned hops processing facility will allow more Virginia farmers to grow the crop and more Virginia brewers to use locally grown hops, rather than hops from the Midwest or West Coast.

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