(Dispatch) - Ohio’s booming craft-beer industry is creating a demand for locally grown hops, and Ohio State University researchers are working to make the key brewing ingredient available here.

A century ago, hops commonly were grown in Ohio, before pests and other problems forced production west, where most growing remains today.

Researchers are trying to identify the best-growing and most-pest-resistant hops for Ohio growers, as well as develop a supply chain and market for locally grown hops. The goal is to keep at home some of the $4 million the state’s craft brewers pay each year for hops grown elsewhere.If successful, Ohio-grown hops also could give a unique twist to beer made here.

“We’re not certain this is going to work, but we have high hopes,” said Brad Bergefurd, an OSU Extension educator who works at OSU’s South Centers research facility in Piketon. He and OSU entomologist Mary Gardiner are working on the hops project.

Although supportive of the OSU effort, the state’s craft brewers know it will take years to develop an adequate supply of the right kinds of hops to meet their needs — if that supply takes shape at all.