Rutgers doctoral candidate in plant biology, Megan Muehlbauer, co-directs the Rutger’s hops study and oversees the trial hops plot at Snyder Research Farm in Pittstown. Photo: Cameron Bowman
The two-year Rutgers study, funded by a grant from the USDA Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, focuses on identifying the best practices for growing and analyzing hops, a traditionally risky and expensive crop to grow. The project includes creating and maintaining a quarter-acre trial hops plot at the Snyder Research Farm in Pittstown, NJ, that is managed by two Rutgers doctoral candidates in plant biology, Megan Muehlbauer and Robert Pyne. They are directed in this project by Jim Simon, professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Pathology and director of the Rutgers new‐use agriculture and natural products program. In Colonial days, the mid-Atlantic region was the epicenter of hops production in the United States. Disease and prohibition during the early 1900s sent hops to the country’s northwestern corner. The proliferation of craft breweries and the Rutgers study could help bring this crop back to New Jersey. Read more at Rutgers Today.
