The first weekend of October marks the fifth annual Hops and Harvest Festival in Empire. The village is surrounded by a number of hops farms, many of whom source their hops to breweries throughout the state. Each fall the Empire Chamber of Commerce hosts the festival to celebrate the harvest season with local food, beer and music on Front Street in the village.
Featuring Northern Michigan food and drinks, live performances, and more, the Empire Hops & Farvest Festival, Saturday, Oct. 7 from noon until 10 p.m., celebrates the beautiful and bitter hop plant. We’ll be celebrating all day in downtown Empire in the big tent on Front Street.
Quaint and creative Empire already hosts the Asparagus Festival in mid-May and the revived Hill Climb racecar event in September. Next up is the village’s inaugural Hops Festival, which organizers hope will also become an annual event.
Scott Whybrew is a man with a plan for retirement: hops farming. “You’ve heard of people spending their children’s inheritance?” he asks with a straight face. In October Scott and his wife Gerri, the parents of three adult children, purchased a 110-acre former apple orchard on Kittlinger Road in Empire Township. Over the course of the fall and a challenging winter, the couple employed a crew of eight-to-10 local men who turned the feral orchard into a working hop farm.