It’s been more than a year since CL first checked in with Twin Bays Hop Farms. At the time, founder Brenden Markopoulos was in the process of tapping into hydroponic farming with an 11,000-square-foot greenhouse for his fresh, sustainable Florida hops.
Markopoulos, who serves as master grower, remains dedicated to bringing the first hydroponic hop farm in the Southeast to St. Petersburg — the custom greenhouse structure is complete, bug screen and all. But what will end up occupying the 24,000-square-foot indoor portion of Twin Bays’ large property at 3201 39th Ave. N., where a 30-barrel brewhouse was previously planned, is now up in the air.
According to Markopoulos, a brewery is still a possibility. He and the team have a couple of other options, too.
“We don’t know if it’s gonna be a brewery,” Markopoulos said. “We met with the community redevelopment board to get approval to use that for medical marijuana and/or hops, so we could go one of three directions.”
The idea is to always offer beer in some capacity, tastings or otherwise.
Another significant change? Twin Bays has redesigned its plant management process. Now, the farm relies heavily on photoperiod control, which allows for the manipulation of the light cycle over the course of each plant’s growth. And remember: Hydroponics means the operation will undergo a new harvest every quarter rather than once a year.
“It’s really hard for craft breweries to rely on that product once a year to make their beer,” said Trevor Grace, who’s part of the Twin Bays marketing team. “We actually want to make it to where they use fresh Florida hops year-round.”
The brains of the farm, including the pumps and dosing system, are located within a small shed separate from the greenhouse. Twin Bays hops call for a proprietary nutrient mixture — in development for the past couple of years and very similar to what’s used when growing hydroponic lettuce and tomatoes, or cannabis — and the farm will conduct 14 waterings daily with help from a 150-gallon water supply.
The crew is getting closer to the first harvest of their 4,464 plants, which are scheduled to arrive in early October.
“Three months after that’ll be right around when the first harvest happens,” Markopoulos said.
Brewers are then encouraged to take advantage of the farm’s open-gate policy and check out the year-round bounty of local hops it sells by the pound. To start, Cascade, Centennial, Columbus, Triple Pearl, Neomexicana and Hallertau are available. Markopoulos expects the six varieties to do well in the specialized environment of Twin Bays, but they’ll change based on market demand.
Bigger breweries that come into the fold have the opportunity to test and potentially grow other hops to work into their brew schedules as well.
So far, the farm has secured preorders from area breweries like Green Bench Brewing Co. and Mastry’s Brewing Co. Others have also expressed interest, among them Motorworks Brewing and 3 Daughters Brewing, plus beer makers beyond Tampa Bay and state lines (think Georgia, Alaska and California). As part of its outreach program to the homebrew scene, the farm will also offer clippings to homebrewers interested in buying hop rhizomes for their backyards.
To hook even more brewers, Twin Bays’ plan for processing is to move into cryogenics — and “hopefully quickly,” as the master grower puts it — with a cryogenic hop powder made on-site. Doing so means the farm can showcase a shelf-stable product that doesn’t need to be used in three days, which is the case with fresh hops.
Good thing there’s plenty of room for growth — and collaboration. The farm intends to partner with breweries on special batches of beer, providing the nuggets of hoppy goodness they require in exchange for exposure to their patrons, as well as invite community volunteers to help pick hops during harvest and work out a deal that lets homebrewers preorder Twin Bays hops from homebrew shops across the state.
Twin Bays’ crowdfunding campaign also speaks to its collaborative nature. The campaign, which has the goal of raising $1 million, is another way for the public to get involved with the farm. Prospective investors have the option to contribute as little as $200, guaranteeing them a unit of stock and three times their investment. With the money, Grace says Twin Bays aims to install another greenhouse and, once enough supply is in place for St. Pete and Tampa, potentially expand into Orlando and Miami with the same model.
“We’re gonna encourage the brewery guys to come in throughout the whole process. They can videotape the harvest and put that on their individual social media platforms,” Markopoulos said. “We want it to be all-inclusive. We’re not trying to hide it from anybody.”
This article appears in Sep 13-20, 2018.