Summit Land Conservancy‘s motto on Thursday, Oct. 12, is “Drink Beer, Save Land,” said Amy Tisovec, the nonprofit’s outreach manager.
“This is the night we host our ninth annual Hoppy Hour,” she said. “We partner with the Wasatch Brew Pub for this, and they’ve been great to do this year after year after year.”
The party will take place upstairs, and advance tickets are available for purchase by visiting wesaveland.org/happenings, Tisovec said.
“We also have tickets available at the door,” she said. “But we usually sell 80% of our tickets beforehand.”
Everyone who purchases a ticket and attends the adults-only event that runs from 6-9 p.m., will automatically be entered into an opportunity drawing, Tisovec said.
“We have prizes we have gotten through our friendships with local retailers and products like Kuhl, Jans, Fjall Raven, Cole Sport, PETZL, SkullCandy, Christy Sports and Stio — everybody who likes beer,” she said. “We want to celebrate them for what they do for us locally.”
The ticket price also includes food and a tasting of a new, special beer, called Clothing Hoptional, created by Master Brewer Nils Imboden, according to Tisovec.
“It’s a nice, drinkable wild-hops ale, and he describes it as ‘a tasty ale with notes of pineapple, melon, subtle grass undertones,'” she said. “He also says it’s ‘crisp, light in color, and has medium-low bitterness.'”
The cones from the wild hops that are used to brew the beer were harvested by a group of 50 volunteers on Aug. 25 on different local easements secured by Summit Land Conservancy, Tisovec said.
Locations include:
- Empire Canyon
- Rail Trail
- McCloud Creek
- Prospect Ridge
- Virginia Mining Claims in Old Town
- Miss Billie’s
- Farmlands on near Wanship and Peoa
“We go around every year on our Hops Hunters Hikes to find the hops and monitor them,” she said. “This year we harvested 163 pounds of wild hops, which was nearly more than we could handle. And we also found hops in places we had never seen before, because it was such a great summer for everything to grow.”
The hops are not indigenous to the area, but have been growing for more than 100 years, Tisovec said.
“The bines — not vines — grow from rhizomes that were brought here by miners who migrated from Germany, Eastern Europe and England,” she said. “The leaves are as big as your hand or even larger than your head, and they grow fast, sometimes up to 12 inches a day in the right conditions. So they were often planted next to a building or along a porch to produce shade.”
Even before the miners, Brigham Young — the leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who settled in the area — had breweries in Salt Lake City, Tisovec said.
“So the Mormons also brought hops there,” she said.
In addition to the wild hops, several local residents who have started growing their own plants added their cones to this year’s batch, Tisovec said.
“They have planted hops in their yards and along their fence lines, and ask us to help with their harvests,” she said. “We have made many friends by helping them with their harvests every year.”
Summit Community Gardens and EATS, a nonprofit that encourages connection, nutrition and stewardship, is another place to find hops, according to Tisovec.
“The (Summit Community Gardens) plot is on an 11-acre conservation easement we call Miss Billie’s,” she said. “They have the hops along their fenceline, and in the springtime we’re going to plant some more in that great spot.”
The Hoppy Hour is what Tisovec calls a “friendraiser.”
She calls it that, because it introduces new friends to Summit Land Conservancy’s work in preserving open land, and celebrates the summer’s events such as nature bathing hikes, which featured outdoor meditation, moonshine adventures, where groups would learn about open spaces during moon-lit evening hikes, and the Hops Hunter Hikes.
“We had more than 250 people attend our events and gatherings this year,” she said. “And we were able to get them through partnerships with organizations like Mountain Trails Foundation, Park City Ghost Tours, White Pine Touring, Anne Sargent of Soul Elements, Recycle Utah, Swaner Preserve, and so many others.”
Last year more than 158 people attended Summit Land Conservancy’s Hoppy Hour, Tisovec said.
“It’s a low-key party for locals, and we’ve been priming the servers this year, because after every Hops Hunters Hike, we would wind up at the Brew Pub,” she said with a laugh.