Hops in Humboldt

Hops in Humboldt- The History

The story starts 20 years ago when a small group of directors were trying to decide on a new event for Fortuna with $1,000 new event grant provided by the Fortuna Business Improvement District.

It took two years of planning, organizing, and researching. Fortuna Rotary and ESA offered to sponsor the event and Hops in Humboldt was a go. The very first Hops was held in 2004, in a small beer garden between the two playgrounds, at Rohner Park.

We had 10 beers at best, all our local breweries and the rest brought by local distributors. It had a bluegrass theme with local bands and some random vendors.

As the event progressed throughout the years more breweries were added. We tried different kinds of music, the Hops beer games and the Hops awards were added. Local homemade food and vendors started to make the event more unique.

Partnerships with transportation companies were formed to provide safe transportation alternatives to attendees. We still partner with RTA to get people to the event from McKinleyville to Fortuna. They bring up to 6 city buses every year to pick up riders from Hops! The city of Fortuna senior bus loops to 5 locations around Fortuna to get our happy Fortuna friends home safe.

Until year five Hops was an all-age event and featured homebrew tasting and brewing demos. The homebrew area was a favorite of the crowd. The end came when the ABC told it was not legal to serve beer to the public that was not made in a commercial facility.

The end of year five saw elbow to elbow room only in the festival and we knew we had out grown our location. In year six Hops decided to make the move off the green grass of Rohner Park to our larger home and current location on Bartow field. That year Hops also started the process of phasing out our sponsors and filed the paperwork to become our own 501C (3) non-profit.

With an amazing board of directors and a dedicated committee who works year a round, Hops in Humboldt is going on its 20th year.

Hops has proudly taken in hundreds of thousands of dollars in event income. The majority of our budget is put back into the community and spent with local businesses to make the event happen.

100% of the proceeds are given back to local groups each year who fall under our grant categories. schools, youth groups, sports; senior services; drug and alcohol prevention and community projects.

In 2023 we gave 5 X $1,000 scholarships to kids graduating and those that continue into colleges that came from Fortuna High!