John Dutcher of Darlington has many interests, one of those interests is hops and growing hops.

      Hops are used to flavor beer or ale and give them a slightly bitter taste.  Along with malt, it is what makes beer taste like, well, beer.

      Several years back, Dutcher went on a field trip to Potosi.  A friend, Marian Horner of Potosi (now deceased), suggested the trip because she knew where hops were growing - wild in fence rows and tree lines.  These were the same fields that Potosi Beer grew their own hops. During the prohibition, the fields were burned and destroyed and were thought of as weeds.

      For almost 100 years, these hop vines survived. Dutcher and Horner managed to dig up some starter plants and replant them where he lived in Platteville.  When he moved to Darlington, the hop plants followed.

      Dutcher said, “When she called me to go on that field trip, I had no idea what she was talking about.  I had the plants in Platteville at my house growing on bungee cords along the side of the house and they went 20 feet in the air.”

      The hops growing at Dutcher’s Darlington residence are thriving this year and have a beautiful appearance. Dutcher thinks they look like a waterfall.  He picked the hop flower and said, “Squeeze this between your fingers and then smell your fingers.”  Sure enough, that beer aroma was evident. 

      “Tom Nickels at Updraft Brewery in Platteville, who has brewed beer for about 50 years, is the guy that does the test beers for the Updraft company. So what they’re going to do, is use these hops for some of their test batches when they are experimenting with different formulas,”  Dutcher explained, “They have a handwritten recipe from Galena, Ill. of the original 1855 Red Stripe beer that is now made in Jamaica. They gave me a six pack from that recipe and it was really good beer.”

      The hops are growing on a rack that looks like a really tall and round clothesline.  It was reinforced with steel but now Dutcher feels that the steel is like a lightening rod in his front yard. He said his house has been struck by lightening on more than one occasion.

      Dutcher said, “When the hops first come up in the springtime and they are about six inches tall, I’ve had people over and had them tie a ribbon on a certain spot on the plant.  When they come back the next day, the hops plant has grown a foot in one night.  It’s like corn, you can almost hear it growing.” 

      Dutcher’s focus then shifted to another of his many hobbies and projects.