DARLINGTON — 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’s what makes beer tastes like… beer.

Several years back, Dutcher went on a field trip to Potosi. His friend Marian Horner of Potosi suggested the trip because she knew where hops growing — wild in fence rows and tree lines. These were the same fields that Potosi Beer in Potosi grew their own hops. During the prohibition, the fields were burnt down and destroyed and were thought of like a weed.

For almost 100 years, these hop vines survived, and 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.

“When she called me to go on that field trip, I had no idea what she was talking about,” Dutcher said. “I had them 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 a waterfall. He picked the hop flower and said, “squeeze this between your fingers and then smell your fingers.” 

Sure enough, that beer taste 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 Updraft. So what they’re going to do is use these hops for some of their test batches, when they’re experimenting with different formulas,” Dutcher said. “They have a hand written 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, round clothes line. It was reinforce with steel, but now Dutcher feels that steel is like a lighting rod in his front yard. He said his house has been struck by lighting on more then one occasion.

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