Foreign attachés from around the world got a close-up look at a Whitefish hops farm Wednesday, learning about the fragrant flowers that one Chinese representative noted are appropriately called “beer flowers” in her country.

Agricultural officials representing 18 countries tapped into several beer-related endeavors in the Flathead Valley, including a lunch stop at Tamarack Brewing Co. in Lakeside and a meeting with Flathead Valley Community College instructors involved in the college’s brewing curriculum.

The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service and Montana Department of Agriculture hosted the group.

While at the Scott Hop Farm on Monegan Road near Whitefish, foreign attachés walked through the rows of towering hop vines and smelled the fragrant aroma of the crop as Tom Britz of Glacier Hops Ranch sliced open a cone-shaped catkin.

Randy Scott, his wife, Leslie, and their three sons, Ryan, David and Kevin, are all involved in their first-year hops endeavor on a 4-acre plot. Growing the crop isn’t as easy as it seems, Randy said.

“The infrastructure is costly, the amount of labor involved is a lot,” he said. “It’s more than we anticipated.”

And, added son David, “Everything is 18 feet in the air.

“It seems every piece [of the process] takes five to six guys. You run through your neighbors pretty fast,” David said with a smile.

Randy pointed out that about 4 to 5 acres is all one operator could handle without having hired help.

Irrigating the hops with six to eight times as much water that’s needed for hay and cultivating between rows are other challenges.

The Scotts planted 4,100 hop plants that included three varieties. The Cascade variety — about half the crop — was the best producer for them.

Harvest got underway late Wednesday afternoon and a portion of the yield was going straight to Great Northern Brewing Co. in Whitefish for its Frog Hop fresh hop ale.

Tom Britz, a Whitefish-area rancher whose property is being used for a five-year hops research trial, said one of the most difficult elements of hops farming is the short 24-hour window before the flower heads begin to deteriorate.

“They’ll start composting if you don’t dry them” immediately, Britz pointed out.

“Growing hops is the easy part. It’s harvesting and finding a place to sell” the product that are more challenging, Britz said. “It’s labor and capital intensive.”

To that end, beyond the backyard hops patches that many homebrewers dabble with, the Scotts and Bigfork orchard owner Mitch Jones operate the only other local commercial hops farms in addition to Britz’s Glacier Hops Ranch.

Britz agreed with Scott about the amount of work and the risks associated with growing the crop.

“That late July hail storm, we got hammered,” Britz said. “It really hurt our yield and production. Our harvest was a fraction of what we had last year. It’s not as easy as an uninformed interested person may think.”

Britz now has a hops harvester at his ranch. Britz and Pat McGlynn, the Montana State University agriculture extension agent for Flathead County, envision a regional growers cooperative to use commercial harvest, processing and packaging equipment.

Washington, Oregon and Idaho are the three biggest hops producers, but other states are making in-roads, Britz said.

“Michigan is the fourth largest state now. They’re three years ahead of us,” he noted.

The demand for hops is strong.

“What’s driving the market is that global taste preferences have changed,” Britz said.

Wildly popular Indian pale ale, known as IPA, is a hops hog, using two to three pounds of hops per barrel, compared to just 0.15 pounds per barrel for commercial beer.

“Statistically, craft beer, at 10 percent of market share, uses as much hops as the rest of the corporate sector,” Britz said.

As local hops production increases, growers will need a hydraulic baler and other equipment.

“I want us to be able to grow this industry in a manageable fashion,” Britz said. “I want to make sure [growers’] expectations are managed properly.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com