Yeah, you'll need something for them to climb. The first summer alone, some varieties can stretch 20-30'. The easiest solution is usually to run a few cords of heavy twine from your plant site up to a roof eave or balcony railing. Trellises and arbors are very nice, but hops can be happy with a clothesline (the bines will coil around supports and have fine "hairs" to catch on things). You'll want to train about 3 bines per rhizome/crown (i.e. per plant) and trim the rest - although they could be intertwined up one rope, they'll usually produce more given the extra space of each bine with its own support. The truly important thing is that the "growing tips" continue to be training upwards by at least a little bit - the long tips starting to hang downward unsupported can trigger the plant to flower early (generally undesired).
NY state was once one of the top hop-producing areas of the country, so your climate should be great. My hops were quite happy in containers on my porch here in NH. Last summer was my first year with them - in 30"dia. x 24" high pots. I tried three varieties (I'd recommend looking into which you want and would do well in your area) - Fuggle, Willamette, and Cascade. Fuggle and Willamette are almost like British and American siblings, so I was curious to compare. Fuggle was very prolific and a fast grower, but succumbed to something and lost most of its bines halfway through the summer (although new growth had almost caught up to the other by the end of the summer. Willamette grew slowly and delicately, a very ornamental plant, very cooperative with training, but ultimately stayed just that - thin, delicate, and ornamental. Neither yielded so much as a single cone last summer - but then, you really shouldn't expect much the first season - it's mostly going into root growth. As much as my earthy-woodsy hop choices were disappointing, my "safety" selection, Cascade, was just beautiful. She started a little later, but quickly turned into a wild, almost-untrainable, cone-laden wonder. (You can see pics on my site at
Dark Brood Homebrewery. I have the containers against the side of the house under some insulation and hope to transplant them into the wooden half-keg style planters this spring.
Remember that it takes almost 3 years for a new hop plant to get fully established, so you'll need BIG containers by then!