Paging Stan Hieronymus: Florida-grown hops! (Though Stan has probably already seen this.) 3 Daughters Brewing of St. Petersburg, Florida, released a new beer this month brewed with hops grown in Florida. The beer is Ctrl + Malt + Delete and its the fifth in a series of these local-hop brews.

Details from the press release:

3 Daughters Brewing, one of Florida’s largest independent breweries is inviting the public to celebrate the release of Ctrl + Malt + Delete, a unique malt liquor brewed with malted barley, flaked corn, simple sugar, and fresh from Florida Hops in conjunction the with UF/IFAS GCREC hop yard.

Ctrl + Malt + Delete is the fifth beer brewed by 3 Daughters Brewing using fresh from Florida Hops. This unique lager is brewed in celebration of their long-standing partnership with the University of Florida-Gulf Coast Research and Education Center.

Using hops from the Nugget variety, 3 Daughters Brewing created a refreshing malt beverage that hits all the right malt liquor notes. This new brew comes in at 7.2 % and pours crystal clear with a light-yellow hue and a thin white head. In the front are notes of sweet corn and grain cereal followed by a very light peppery hint of alcohol. With moderate carbonation, this refreshing malt liquor quenches your thirst with a sweet crisp finish.

The beer was released on July 1 and went on draft at both of the brewery’s taprooms on the 2nd.

I’m definitely curious about this and the hops grown in Florida because hops evolved to thrive between 35 and 55 degrees latitude—above the furthest north border of Florida at about 31 degrees latitude. Not that they can’t grow there, but I’d have questions about yield, pests/diseases in a hotter, more humid climate, and other things. And it would certainly be interesting to compare flavors of the same varieties grown in Florida and the Pacific Northwest.