In Stardew Valley, Hops stand out as a summer crop that may not seem particularly lucrative at first glance. Mostly because they're not typically grown for direct sale. The true worth of Hops is unlocked through processing in a keg; when transformed into artisan goods like Pale Ale, their market value increases significantly. Here is what you need to know about Hops.
How to Be a Hops Hero
The presence of Hops in Stardew Valley is one of the various telltale signs that the game was made in Seattle. It’s here to get you into homebrewing ale and is good for almost nothing else.
On its own merits, Hops is a trellis-grown Summer flower that very gradually earns back its purchase price. Hops Starter costs 60g from Pierre’s General Store or the Night Market, but a single Hops flower only sells for 25g.
That sounds like a rotten deal, but after you harvest it, Hops regrows on its trellis after only 1 day. If you plant Hops early enough in Summer, you’ll eventually make a profit on each plant through sheer sales volume. It's worth investing in Speed-Gro fertilizer to maximize your yield.
The real potential from Hops comes once you've gotten your hands on a Keg. When you place Hops into a Keg, it turns into Pale Ale 1-2 days later, which sells for a base price of 300g.
Notably, Pale Ale is always normal-quality once it comes out of a Keg. Unlike many other artisan goods in Stardew Valley, you can cask-age Pale Ale in Kegs, which gradually upgrades the Pale Ale's quality from silver to gold to iridium.
This is a slow process, however. Pale Ale takes about 34 days in total to max out its quality, which only doubles its market value (600g). You make more money off Pale Ale through volume, as you could make at least 17 normal Pale Ales in the time it takes to get one to iridium. The only reason to make iridium Pale Ale is if you want the best possible birthday gift for Pam, who loves the stuff.
Hops, By the Numbers
- Season: Summer
- Seeds: 60g (Pierre), 75g (JojoMart), 100-1000g (Traveling Cart), 60g (Night Market)
- Base Sale Price Per Unit: 25g
- Growth Time: 11 days, regrows after 1 day
- Energy/Health When Eaten: 45 Energy, 20 Health
What Else to Do with Your Hops in Stardew Valley
Hops don't have a ton of utility besides being turned into beer. It’s barely worth eating, it’s not in any other recipes, and once you’ve got your trellis setup going, you can easily end up with more Hops than you can handle.
Recipes & Crafting
- Hops Starter sells for 30g. Once you have a Seed Maker, you can feed Hops back into it to create Starter, then sell that to make a steady profit for the duration of Summer. It’s not a bad trick for your first run through the game.
- As with most alcoholic beverages, you can use Pale Ale as one of the ingredients to make the Black Leather Jacket at Emily’s house. Her sewing machine gets unlocked after the first time you find or make Cloth.
- Place Hops into the dye pots in Emily’s house to produce green dye.
Gifts
- Almost everyone in the village has a neutral reaction to being given Hops. The exceptions are Leo and Penny, who both hate it.
- Pale Ale, on the other hand, is a surprisingly reliable go-to gift. Pam loves Pale Ale, while Jas, Leo, Penny, Sebastian, and Vincent all hate it. Everyone else in the village likes it.
Quests and Other Options
- On Summer 14, Pam sends you mail that starts the “Pam is Thirsty” quest, which requires you to bring her a Pale Ale. She’ll pay you 350g for it. Fortunately, there's no time limit here.
- If you take the Remixed Bundles option at the start of a new game, Hops and/or Pale Ale may appear in one of the various Bundles you have to fill in the Community Center.
- Because Hops grow so quickly, they’re an effective crop to plant if you’re looking to power-level your Farming skill. An individual Hops flower isn’t worth a lot of XP, but as noted above, once they sprout, they regrow every other day. It’s worth having a row of Hops trellises on your farm simply for the XP grind, as some of the most useful crafting items in the game (Kegs, Looms, the Quality Sprinkler) are unlocked through Farming skill.
Hops may not look like much to a new player, but they come into their own once you’ve got a few more blueprints under your belt. You can make a lot of money through making your Hops surplus into beer, although it’s a shame you don’t have access to the best part of homebrewing: coming up with the weirdest possible name for your new IPA. (Mine is Thrown Directly at the Nearest Wall IPA.) Enjoy.
