A Beer Drinker’s Guide to American Hops
Image courtesy of USAHOPS.org
For the amount of information readily available online regarding American hop varieties, characteristics, history, flavor profiles, etc., the vast majority of these resources are intended for homebrewers, not the curious drinker. Want to know what defines American hop culture? Hint: it isn’t found in the annual hop harvest numbers. Trying to find out what an American “C Hop” is? Say goodbye to an hour of your life.
Consider this a casual, straightforward introduction to American hops. For me, I wanted to know how the American hop industry fit with the rest of the world, the characteristics that make American hops stand out, and the varieties that are most important to know for thoughtful imbibers. So I poked around.
Image courtesy of USAHOPS.org
The first commercial American hops were established around the beginning of the 1800s in New York State and progressively spread westward, with periods of brief ascension in Wisconsin and California. Currently, the Yakima Valley in Washington State (white box), the Williamette Valley in Oregon, and the panhandle and Boise River Valley in Idaho represent the vast majority of hop production in the United States.
The U.S. is the largest hop-producing country in the world, comprising 38% of world hop production in 2009 (more than 90 million pounds of hops!). Germany comes in second at 28%, China (who knew?) in third at 15%, followed by the Czech Republic (6%) and the rest of the world. Historically, Germany and the U.S. have flipped back and forth; and while Germany has consistently held the greatest hop acreage (this will likely change soon), the U.S. has higher yields.
The top ten American hop varieties in 2009, as measured by Hop Growers of America, are given below (in terms of percentage of the total U.S. production). Note that many of these are relatively new varieties, and this list often changes from year to year as newer, better-yielding hybrids are developed:
1.) Zeus – 23%
2.) Columbus / Tomahawk – 14%
3.) Williamette – 8%
4.) Nugget – 7%
5.) Cascade – 5%
5.) Galena – 5%
7.) Summit – 4%
8.) Millennium – 3%
8.) Super Galena – 3%
10.) Apollo – 2%
All others – 26%
Image courtesy of Hop Breeding Co.
The world’s hop industry landscape has changed enormously over the last hundred years. At the turn of the century there were approximately a dozen or so commercial hop varieties. Booming innovation in places like the U.S. and New Zealand have helped bring that number into the hundreds today. New hop varieties are constantly being tested and commercially bred for increased alpha acids (more bitterness for your buck), lower levels of “cohumulone” (it gives a long, harsher bitterness), greater yields, and better resistance to various pests and crop-damaging diseases. In other words – many “classic” American hop varieties are younger than you are.
Unlike other elements of brewing, hop growing can be very heavily influenced by what wine-sipping folk generally refer to as “terroir.” The aromatic, spicy noble hop varieties grown in Germany and the Czech Republic (Hallertauer Mittlefrüh, Tettnanger, Saaz, and Spalt) have shaped that area’s brewing culture of clean, delicately hopped lagers. England’s traditional bitters wouldn’t be the same without the earthy, woodsy profile of classic hops like Fuggles and the various manifestations of Goldings. And with rising demand for these traditional hops throughout the world, many of the varieties developed and grown in the U.S. mimic these same aroma, flavor, and bittering properties. (E.g., Williamette, the #3 American hop, is a popular brewing substitution for English Fuggles.)
Hop Character of English Fuggles
That still doesn’t get us to the core of what actually defines American hop culture for beer drinkers, or how the industry has really altered craft brewing throughout the world over the last thirty-ish years. I’d argue that there have been two major channels of innovation in the U.S. hop industry that you should care about.
The first is something that many beer drinkers tend to overlook, because it tends to be a factor on the brewing and financial side more than anything obvious in the glass. Alpha acid content is one of the most important characteristics aside from a hop’s flavor and aroma profile (it will typically be listed in terms of percent alpha acid, or % AA). This basically tells you how much bitterness (in the form of alpha acids) will potentially be available from a given amount of hops.
While noble hops typically provide between 2.5 to 5.5% AA and classic English varieties between 4.0 to 6.5% AA, more recent commercial strains can have significantly higher alpha acid content (this is not entirely unique to American hop culture, but it’s certainly more prevalent here than anywhere else). Apollo hops (the #10 American hop in 2009), for example, were cultivated in 2000 in Washington and can contain upwards of 20-21% AA.
These hops give brewers greater amounts of hop bitterness at a lower unit cost, providing ample opportunity to create those heavily hopped IPAs, DIPAs, and barley wines we take for granted.
From the table up above, Nugget, Galena, Summit, Millennium, Super Galena, and Apollo all fall into this category of high alpha acid bittering hops. Similarly, Zeus and Columbus/Tomahawk (which are very similar varieties) fall into the category of dual-purpose hops, as they exhibit both high alpha acid levels and pleasant aroma characteristics. Columbus’ hop profile is provided below.
Hop Character of Columbus
But perhaps the most definitive element of American hop culture revolves around this notion of American “C Hops” I mentioned earlier. While there are at least five U.S. hops beginning with the letter “C”, the most common grouping tends to be Cascade, Centennial, Columbus and / or Chinook (the first two being the most important here). Hop profiles for Cascade and Centennial are provided below.
When one considers quintessential beers like Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale and Celebration Ale, Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, Anchor Liberty, Bear Republic Racer 5, New River Pale Ale, and North Coast Red Seal Ale, it’s perhaps slightly easier to encapsulate what so significantly distinguishes U.S. hop culture from those of other classical beer-producing regions. Cascade (the first of the C Hops to be commercially released, in 1972) is generally considered to be the archetype of citrusy American C Hops. Citrus, fruitiness, even a moderate floral character.
But most especially Citrus.
Hop Character of Cascade
Hop Character of Centennial
Hop Character of Amarillo
Hop Character of Simcoe
I’ve included a couple of other key American hop profiles above (admittedly ones that I have a strong fondness for). Both the orangey Amarillo and piney Simcoe serve to further illustrate this divergence away from classic European hops.
While it’s not possible to go back in time (at least, not yet…), it’s interesting to imagine what it would’ve been like to suddenly have one’s world of Bohemian Pilsners or English ESBs suddenly turned upside down from that first sip of one of those initial American pale ales. We take certain things for granted here.
It’s also worth noting that we don’t really need a time machine, as we’re forgetful creatures. If you find yourself unable to conjure up that spiciness of noble hops, or the subtle earthiness of a low-alcohol bitter, it’s perfectly possible to seek out and discover similarly new experiences with classic hop varieties you may have forgotten. New Zealand, amongst other regions, has a wealth of new hoppiness worth exploring. As much as I adore West Coast IPAs and those 5-liter mini kegs of Two Hearted, there’s a reason those classic European hop varieties became so. Keep exploring, and remember you’re always only a pint away from home.
Bibliography:
2009 Hop Growers of America Statistical Report, available online.
Palmer, John J. How to Brew. Brewers Publications. 2006.
Awesome Hop Character Graphs courtesy of www.brew365.com.
15 Comments to “A Beer Drinker’s Guide to American Hops”
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Love the Brew 365 hop aroma profiles! Taken with a grain of salt given terroir, freshness and other factors but a great baseline resource.
I thought Zeus was the same as Columbus/Tomahawk? Either way, great article, Ken.
It’s supposed to be really similar if not identical.
I’m guessing one potential reason for the HGA listing those two separately is because Tomahawk is trademarked. But that’s just a guess.
Great article Ken. This should be required reading for every American craft beer drinker. Or at least the hop heads.
Question though: Do you know how the hop character charts are constructed? I wonder if they are based on empirical data or a general consensus of what people sense. The reason I ask is because I’ve always considered Simcoe to be much more citrusy than the Cascades. I actually brew more with Simcoe because I don’t like the piney taste of other varieties, even though the chart shows Simcoe as having a decent pine flavor.
Anything that we taste or smell is going to be subjective, but I’m curious about how these profiles are established.
Good stuff.
@ Billy
That’s a good question. One possibility is that I remember seeing a graph of various hop profiles that showed typical percentages of either (I can’t remember) alpha acids or essential oils. It might be possible to use data like that and directly correlate it to things like “citrus” and “floral” characteristics. I honestly don’t know. I sent an email to the brew365 owner out of curiosity. Even if it is a subjective analysis, it’s impressive.
Actually, when I think of Simcoe hops the first thing that comes to mind is Weyerbacher Double Simcoe, which presents a huge piney character on my palate. I was actually surprised to see that citrus was such a prominent component! As Joe T. mentioned, these things change between harvests; and one man’s citrus is another man’s pine.
Thanks for the kind comments, dude. I’ll shoot you an email if I hear anything back regarding the hop charts, and will post here as well.
Quick response from brew365.com. Evidently these are from personal evaluations of each hop’s flavor/aroma profiles, so people can think of them as an experience-centered evaluation of these hop varieties. Again, I think they’re really illustrative, and even a chemically based analysis would differ from year to year.
But I’m still curious whether it would be possible to do that analysis thing I…
Hey Ken thanks for emailing 365 and getting back to me. Got your email too. Those guys really know their stuff and the charts are awesome.
I agree it would be cool to do a chemical analysis and see if you could correlate the oils to specific flavors. I also wonder if when you add them to the boil makes a difference. 30 minutes piney, 5 minutes citrusy?
I better stop before the science nerd in me gets too carried away. Thanks again Ken.
I grow C/T/Z and Sterling. Minor yield during year two, this should be the year of abundance. I am looking forward to seeing how these hops compare growing in Upstate New York to the commercial grown efforts. Cool overview.
Yup, I too thought the CTZ (Columbus, tomahawk and zeus) were the same hop.
Other than that, Great Article, ken!
I thought the article would have touched more on less known hops such as the Glacier, and Santiam.
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Dude, great article. Very informative and easy to read.
Have you written or know of any other articles written about the other hop growing regions’ characteristics and what distinctly sets them apart other than the two word “they’re spicy” reply?
Thanks
Thanks, Jeff. I know Stan Hieronymus (excellent beer writer and researcher) is working on a hops book. Not sure when that will be released.
http://www.fortheloveofhops.com/
I can’t think of any other articles off the top of my head, but I’m sure they’re out there somewhere. I think one issue that arises (besides the fact that hop harvests will change from year to year) is that making a clear distinction between the regions doesn’t always work very well. Noble hops tend to be spicy and/or minerally, etc., depending upon the variety, American hops tend to be citrusy (and/or piney, etc.), but it depends upon what varietal you’re going, where you’re growing it, and ultimately how you incorporate it into the final product. The exact same hops can be present themselves very differently depending upon how they’re used (when added, water characteristics, etc.). In other words, it’s quite fuzzy.