[hoytech]

> The plant’s introduction to the New World came with European settlers, who brought hops to North America in the 17th century.

This is not true. Hops were widespread in North America before European contact. There are broadly speaking 4 major land races of hops: European, Asian, and 2 from North America.

The history of hops breeding is pretty fascinating (at least to a nerd like me). Almost all of the trendy modern varieties that you would recognise from IPAs and NEIPAs (such as the "C" strains: your Cascades, Citras, etc) are the result of cross breeding a North American variety (probably Cluster) with a European variety (probably Fuggle), and can be traced back to a breeder who imported an "unknown strain from Manitoba" back to England, and bred and categorised hundreds of hybrids. I believe the goal was to breed a strain that was disease resistant but with less of the (now desirable) intense flavours characteristic of the North American strains.

I grow hops in Canada (Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, and Perle varieties). They are a really cool plant: I've never seen anything grow as quickly as they do (Benjamin Franklin once wrote about how impressive it was to watch hops grow), and their smell is really wonderful at harvest time. I dry, vacuum seal, and freeze them, and produce more whole leaf hops than I need for a year of brewing (which would otherwise cost several hundred dollars).