A contemporary traveler claimed that "...good hops grow in the woods..."

Their origin is unknown, they may well have been indigenous wild hops. By 1629 the first hop garden was in production on Manhattan, and there were a number of breweries in production by the 1630's, though Dutch settlers also are known to have imported hops from Europe too.
English settlers liked their ale just as well as the Dutch did, indeed it is told that the Mayflower put in at what became Plymouth instead of continuing on to Virginia because the ships store of ale was running low. It is believed that the second or third ship to arrive in the Plymouth Colony brought hop roots. And is documented that hop roots were sent with the Endicott expedition to Massachusetts Bay in 1628. From that time on hop culture was fostered. The Puritan town in New England often made small grants of land to individuals for cultivation as hop gardens.
Pennsylvania and Virginia colonies both passed legislation designed to promote hop production, and hop growing spread throughout all the original colonies . Hop cultivation even being done in Louisiana by the 1750's.

But the New England area was climatically better suited for commercial hop production and it flourished in Massachusetts. Hops from that colony were being exported to other colonies and Newfoundland by 1718 and by the end of the 18th century Massachusetts hops were being exported to France and Germany. Vermont and New Hampshire also had successful hop farms.

In 1808 the commercial production of hops began in the Madison County area of central New York State. By 1840 the production in New York was twice that of Massachusetts and continued to grow in the area from Waterville to Cooperstown.

It was only natural that the Midwest and particularly Wisconsin, with a large German population and numerous breweries, would get into hop production. James Weaver, who had been a hop farmer in New York settled in Waukesha County, west of Milwaukee in 1837 and began raising hops. Hop growing continued strong in Waukesha County, indeed a 1863 hop kiln still stands in a neighborhood park on Rybeck Road, a short distance north of Hartland. Farther to the northwest Sauk County, around Kilbourn City, (now Wisconsin Dells) became a major hop culture center. This was a period in which hop prices soared. By 1867 the price was 58 cents per pound and 27,000 bales of 200 pounds each were produced in Wisconsin's Sauk County alone.

That year 15,000 young men and women were needed to harvest the crop, all the work, including picking the cones from the vines, being done by hand. Special trains would bring thousands from Milwaukee to Kilbourn (now Wisconsin Dells) for the harvest. Every evening these was dancing in the barns of the hop farms as fiddlers played and others added the beat. The term hop, meaning social dance, owes its origin to those lively stomps.

But over-production precipitated a crash in the market, to just 4 cents per pound. Many growers and dealers lost everything. Still, Wisconsin produced 4,630,155 pounds in 1869. Then powdery mildew and aphids overran the Wisconsin yards, and by 1889 hop growing in Wisconsin and the Midwest was insignificant.

Hop growing continued in New York into the 20th century, but the excellent growing conditions on the West Coast doomed hop growing in all other areas of the country.

The first hops were grown in California in 1856 and by 1880 it was solidly established as a hop producing state. Large scale production continued through the 1960's, but now there is only one small grower left. Hop growing in the State fell victim to the economics of competition from the Pacific Northwest. In 1865 roots were planted in the Puyalup Valley, not far from Olympia, Washington, and growing spread widely west of the Cascades. East of the Cascades hop culture began in the Yakima Valley in 1872, and growing increased markedly after the Northern Pacific Railroad reached the area.

Those interested in more of the history of hop growing should visit the American Hop Museum in Toppenish, Washington in the Yakima Valley, it is across the street from the old Northern Pacific depot which itself is now a railroad museum.

Today, in the US. there are three primary commercial growing areas: The Yakima Valley in Washington, the Treasure Valley in Idaho near Boise, and the Willamette Valley in Oregon. About 70% of the crop is grown in the Yakima Valley. In addition there are farms in northern Idaho whose production is dedicated to their owner, a major brewing firm.

One interesting note, in Germany the average hop farm is only 16.5 acres, For the entire European Union the average farm size is only 12.9 acres. In the U. S. we average over 400 acres per grower!