Long Island Hops Farmers Jump For Joy As Local Brewery Demand Drives Bumper Crop

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The farm to table movement is going liquid. Now, it's farm to pint on Long Island where it's hip to grow hops.

Heads have been turning on the North Fork as towering poles poke high above the grape vines in the heart of wine country.

As CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported, it's a curious sight -- creeping up 18-foot high twine trellises, they're not vines, they're called bines, and the crop is called hop.

"Hops is the essence of beer. This is the beginning of hops right here. In three weeks it will be the size of a small pine cone," Craft Master Hops, Co-Owner, Marcos Ribeiro said.

Hops add the bitterness to beer and local growers can't keep up with demand. That's why Ribeiro and Pat Libutti recently hopped on the craft beer wagon launching Long Island's biggest organic hop farm.

They'll grow from 6 to 8 inches a day.

Craft Master Hops joins a bumper crop across New York where 5 acres have grown into 300 in less than a decade thanks to tax breaks for New York microbreweries and customers who have pledged to buy local.

"We have these farm fields out here that can grow these products for us, so we are a local business. We can use local made products. It's a win for everyone," Long Island Brewing Company owner, Dan Berke said.

"It's part of the movement. It's part of having the ability to go to a farm to touch the hops. It's a whole different experience," Libutti said.

Long Island soil, sun, and water have been called the perfect recipe for great beer.

"So there is potential for farmers to grow these crops, keep the land in production, and hopefully make some money, and be profitable going forward," Long Island Farm Bureau, President, Robert Carpenter said.

It's not the first time hops have towered across Long Island. Before prohibition, New York buzzed with breweries but now -- a century later -- hops are once again firmly planted in a region that will no longer just be known as wine country.

In late August, growers will cut down the ropes and harvest the hops. Some will be dried and pellatized to sell to breweries in the off-season.