For the second year in a row, New York's fledgling hops industry -- developed by Cornell University, the Northeast Hops Alliance and New York's Department of Agriculture and Markets -- continues to grow. The Ithaca Beer Co.'s Double India Pale Ale, made from hops grown exclusively in New York, is now available to consumers at pubs and cafes in New York City, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. Last year, it sold out within weeks.

Duncan Hilchey, Cornell senior extension associate in Cornell's Community, Food and Agriculture Program in the Department of Development Sociology, is striving to kick-start a new hop-growing industry. Hilchey helped to develop the Northeast Hops Alliance, a group of farmers and brewers trying to amplify hop's resurgence in the state. New York state was once a thriving hop-growing region, but crop disease and prohibition shut it down early in the last century.

Until the Ithaca Beer Co. developed its Double India Pale Ale last year, it had been a half-century since a beer made entirely with New York-grown hops had been on the market.

Approximately 200 pounds of hops were used this season, all from Rick Pedersen, of Pederson Farms in Seneca Castle, N.Y. Two years ago the grower began test plots of hops with a $7,350 grant from the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets. 

The Ithaca Beer Co.'s Double India Pale Ale is available in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art's Terrace Five Café, George Keeley's and the West Side Brewery. It also is available at Alternative Brew in Buffalo and Amherst, Big Ugly's Pub in Lockport, Hot Shots in Rochester and Clark's in Syracuse.