looking back 2009
Catching
Up with
Conrad
Fink
—CINDY SCHWEICH HANDLER
36
SPRING 2020 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE
HOPPY TO BE UPSTATE Conrad Fink,
whose family owns Alta Vista Farm,
offers periodic tours to visitors.
I
n our Fall 2009 issue,
we interviewed Montclair
resident Conrad Fink about
his advertising production
company, This Is TV, and
his clients, who ranged from
New York City public school teach-
ers to Hair Club for Men. “Whether
it’s entertainment, interesting visu-
als or great music, you have to give
viewers something that makes
it worthwhile for them to pay
attention,” he said at the time.
Since then, Fink has begun
another venture to vie for custom-
ers’ attention: In 2015, he started
growing hops in Central New York
State. Fink’s family bought Alta
Vista Farm in the ’70s, but had
only used it as a weekend getaway.
In 2012, Fink took advantage of
New York State Farm Brewery leg-
islation requiring craft brewers with
certain licenses to use New York
State-grown ingredients, and made
it a working farm again.
With the explosion in the num-
ber of local breweries in both New
York and New Jersey, you don’t
have to drive far to drink beers
made with Alta Vista Farm hops.
Montclair Brewery regularly uses
his Centennial variety; his Cascade
variety was used by Ghost Hawk
Brewing in Clifton to produce their
Alta Vista IPA and by Four City
Brewing in Orange for their recent-
ly-released Hedison’s Phonograph
Volume 6. ■